Easter feels really early this year, and I feel like it’s kind of snuck up on me. Honestly, I probably wouldn’t have noticed except that my Pinterest feed has become full of Easter stuff lately. One thing that caught my eye were these ADORABLE cookies from Diamonds for Dessert. So. Stinkin’. Cute. And, of course, my first thought was, “This needs to be a cupcake too!”
Easter Chick Cupcakes
Makes 12 cupcakes
For the raspberry lemonade cupcakes:
4 tbsp. (57 grams) butter, room temperature
1 cup granulated sugar
2 eggs
1/2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/4 cup lemon juice
1 tbsp. lemon zest
1 tsp. raspberry extract
1/3 cup milk
1 cup all purpose flour
For the frosting:
1 cup granulated sugar
3 tbsp. water
2 egg whites
1 1/2 tsp. cream of tartar
1 tsp. lemon juice
Yellow gel food coloring
Additional things:
Royal icing
Food gel coloring in black and orange
Parchment paper
A large, round tip
Yellow sanding sugar (optional)
For this little project, you can really use any flavor of cupcake you want and you can flavor the frosting with whatever extract you’d like, but you’ll want to use the frosting recipe above because it’s very light and will hold its shape well. It’s also a meringue-like frosting (often called boiled icing or 7 minute icing) and will develop a skin on the outside the longer it’s exposed to air so it can’t be made in advance and the cupcakes really shouldn’t be frosted more than a day in advance. Since I detailed how to make these cupcakes and frosting in another post, I’ll simply refer you to that rather than going through all the same instructions again here. You can find my post for raspberry lemonade cupcakes here.
In addition to the cupcakes and frosting, you’re going to need some royal icing (you can also use dark chocolate and orange candy melts) eyes, beaks, and feet. You can find my recipe for royal icing here, and you can make these pieces as far in advance as you want, but they will need about 3-4 hours to dry before you can use them. For the feet and beaks, you’ll want a relatively stiff royal icing (piping consistency) and you’ll want to tint it orange. To make the beaks, pipe a small dot of icing onto your parchment paper (you can use a binder sleeve too) and continue giving the bag pressure as you pull it up and away. For the feet, you’re essentially going to make a “W,” starting at the toes and pulling the icing back towards the heel. For the eyes, use a 20-second icing tinted black. You can make the eyes as small or large as you want (I, personally, think the smaller eyes look a little better).
Once you have your royal icing pieces, cupcakes, and frosting (tinted yellow), it’s time to assemble everything. With a large round tip, pipe an even layer of frosting around the top of the cupcake. It’s ok if the frosting pulls into a point when you pull the piping bag away from the cupcake. We’re just going to put a head there anyway. To make the head, pipe a dollop of frosting (slightly off-center) on top of your first layer of frosting. Using a clean pair of tweezers, add the feet, beak, and eyes.
If you want to add some texture, you can use yellow sanding sugar.
Simply adorable!
Thank you! 😀
Aw, what cute cupcakes! Love how easy they are to make too, bet they were lots of fun 🙂
They were lots of fun! And after all the cakes I’ve been making, a very nice change of pace. 🙂
Aw, these are adorable! They remind me of Peep chicks (:
Haha I actually hadn’t thought of it before you mentioned it, but I definitely see the resemblance now! 🙂
I am in love!! super sweet for Easter treat 🙂
So glad you like them! 🙂
Aww so adorable!
Thank you! 😀
These are so sweet! And they don’t look terribly difficult, which is the best part!
Thank you! 🙂 They really are super easy to make!
Wow how adorable are these! Will definitely add this to my toddler baking to do list!
Thank you! 🙂 I hope you and your little one enjoy making them!
These are so adorable. Love them! Pinned and shared on MomLovesBaking.com Facebook page. 🙂
So glad you like them and thank you for the sweet shares! 🙂
These are too cute! Pinned and shared!
So glad you liked these little guys! 😀
That last photo? The sideways peeking chick? MADE MY DAY.
I’m so glad you liked it! That shot is kind of becoming my new thing. 😉
I agree! I love that last shot!!
The CUTEST cupcake I have ever seen….and that last picture? THE BEST!!!! Here comes my Easter dessert – pinning!
Awww thank you! I’m so glad you liked the cupcake and my photobombing picture. 😉
so cute. love the photos, tasty looking cupcakes. thanks for sharing
So glad you liked them! 🙂
These are too cute, love them and loving that last picture, haha! Pinned this and sharing on my blog’s FB page tomorrow 🙂
Thank you so much! I’m glad you liked my little photo bomber. He’s kind of a character. 😉
I absolutely love these. They are too cute! Also, I definitely want to try the raspberry lemonade cupcake. That sounds divine. Pinned!
Thank you! I have to admit, we’ve finally gotten some sun here and raspberry lemonade just sounded so… spring-y! 🙂
These are so cute! my son would love these…. great post! (found you on Creative Ways)
Thanks so much for stopping by and leaving a sweet comment! 🙂
These look soooooooooo cute!
Thank you! 🙂
Adorable cupcakes! But that bunting, I looovvvveee!!!!
These are adorable! I love these! Amazing.
Thank you so much! 🙂
How adorable! These look wonderful. Thanks for linking up to Sweet and Savoury Sunday, stop by and link up again. Have a great day!! Laura@Baking in Pyjamas
These are the CUTEST cupcakes!!!! Absolutely adorable!!!
Awww thank you! 😀
So darling for Easter – pinned! I will be featuring them at Whimsy Wednesday this week! Thanks for linking up with us! Susan
Thanks so much for the sweet feature! 😀
I LOVE these little guys!! I’m getting my very own little chickies this year and am crazy excited.. I think it’s only fitting to have a chick party and make these cupcakes!
How exciting! I’ve always loved the idea of having chickens, but we unfortunately live in an apartment complex so it’s not really feasible. Can’t wait to see and her all about your adventures with chicken raising! 😀
My kids would love it if I made this for them! Oh my goodness it’s so darling! Pinning! Thanks for sharing this at Totally Terrific Tuesday last week.
You’ll have to try making them! I promise, they’re soooooo easy! 😀
Thanks for sharing with us at Best of the Weekend – these will be featured on my blog tonight!
Thanks so much for the sweet feature! 🙂
These are wonderful! So cute!
http://makingmemorieswithyourkids.com
Thank you! 🙂
I think this is one of the cutest things I have ever seen. Period. Done.
You nailed ADORBZ totally.
Happy Easter!!!!!!!!!!!
Awww thank you! 🙂
The frosting ingredients here and those in the linked Raspberry Lemonade Cupcakes instructions are slightly different. Do you add the lemon juice at the same time you would add the Raspberry Lemonade Powder if you were using that for flavoring? …looking forward to making these!
Exactly! 🙂 Just add the lemon juice (or any other flavoring you might want to use) at the same time as the raspberry lemonade powder in the other recipe.
These are absolutely precious!!
Awww I’m so glad you think so! 😀