Easter Chick Cupcakes
Easy
These delightful little cupcakes are a cute addition to any spring garden party or Easter celebration. Light and fluffy vanilla cupcakes are decorated with lightly lemon buttercream chicks. Delicious! Sponsored by Odlums
PREP IN
25 MIN
COOK IN
20 MIN
SERVE
12
Easter Chick Cupcakes
Easy
PREP IN
25 MIN
COOK IN
20 MIN
SERVE
12
Introduction
These delightful little cupcakes are a cute addition to any spring garden party or Easter celebration. Light and fluffy vanilla cupcakes are decorated with lightly lemon buttercream chicks. Delicious! Sponsored by Odlums
Ingredients
- 190g Odlums plain flour
- 1 ¼ tsp Odlums baking powder
- ½ tsp baking soda
- 125ml buttermilk, room temp
- 125ml sunflower or light olive oil
- 170g white sugar
- 2 large eggs
- 2 tsp Goodalls vanilla extract
- ¼ tsp salt
- 225g unsalted butter, softened
- 375g icing sugar, sifted
- 2 tbsp lemon juice
- ½ tsp Goodalls vanilla extract
- ¼ tsp salt
- 2 tbsp hot water
- Yellow gel or liquid food colouring
- Small piece black fondant
- Small piece orange fondant
- (Alternatively, white fondant, black and orange gel food colour)
FOR THE SPONGE:
FOR THE BUTTERCREAM:
TO DECORATE:
Method
- 1. Pre-heat oven to 180°C / 160°C fan assisted. Line a muffin tin with 12 cupcake liners.
- 2. Sift together the flour, baking powder and baking soda in a large bowl or bowl of your stand mixer.
- 3. In a separate bowl, whisk together the rest of the cupcake ingredients.
- 4. Add the wet ingredients to the dry then mix with a large whisk or spoon, or whisk attachment on your stand mixer, just until the batter is combined. The batter will be quite loose. Tip: Make sure to scrape down the sides and bottom of the bowl once halfway through mixing.
- 5. Spoon the batter into the cupcake liners to 2/3 full. Make sure not to fill them too much otherwise the cupcakes will flow over. Tip: If you are using cupcake liners that are a bit smaller and you find you still have cupcake batter left, you can use a second muffin tin lined with as many extra liners as needed. You may need to make extra frosting if this is the case, or simply dust the extras with powdered sugar and top with a strawberry!
- 6. Bake in the pre-heat oven until a toothpick inserted in the centre of a cupcake comes out clean. Between 18-20 minutes. Tip: If your oven bakes unevenly, wait until halfway through baking before rotating the tin in the oven.
- 7. Remove cupcakes from the oven and leave to cool on wire rack in the muffin pan for about 10 minutes, then remove cupcakes from the pan and leave to cool completely on wire rack before decorating.
- 8. While the cupcakes are cooling, make the eyes and beaks for the little chicks. If using white fondant, first colour half with black and half with orange gel colouring. Pinch off small pieces of black fondant and roll between your finger and thumb to make little balls about ¼ the size of a pea. Leave these to dry until needed. For the little beaks, pinch off small pieces of orange fondant and roll into a little ball about ½ the size of a pea, then roll the one side to make a little carrot shape. Put these aside to dry until needed.
- 9. For the buttercream frosting, beat butter on low speed for about 5 minutes until butter is smooth and has lightened in colour.
- 10. Add the icing sugar, lemon juice, vanilla, salt and 1 tbsp of the hot water and beat on low speed until frosting becomes creamy. Add another 1 tbsp hot water and continue beating until well combined. Tip: Adding hot water helps to dissolve the icing sugar for a buttercream that’s less gritty.
- 11. To colour the buttercream, mix in a few drops of yellow gel or liquid food colouring until you reach the shade that you like. Tip: Always add a small amount at a time to avoid a shade that’s too dark.
- 12. Fill a large piping bag fitted with a large plain round piping nozzle with the buttercream. If you don’t have a large piping tip, you can simply trim off the end of the piping bag to the desired size (the opening should be roughly the size of a €1 coin.)
- 13. Holding the piping bag still and about 1 finger’s width above the centre of a cupcake, squeeze a large blob of icing onto the cupcake (no not move the piping bag at all, once the blob is big enough, stop squeezing, then lift away the piping bag.) For the head, squeeze a smaller blob of buttercream on top, again, holding the piping bag still and about ½ a finger’s width above the first blob before squeezing.
- 14. Finish off each cupcake with two black eyes and a little beak.
- 15. Store at room temperature in a sealed container for up to 3 days.
