Birds' Nest Cupcakes

Tomorrow, we are heading to my mom's for an early dinner with my family to celebrate Easter. In addition to the cutout cookies, I wanted to make something else that fit in with the spring/Easter theme.

I had seen photos of birds' nest cupcakes, but the "nest" part was always made with toasted coconut or chow mein noodles. I wanted to make my nests with frosting. I made up a batch of buttercream and used one of my decorative frosting tips to swirl a little "nest" on the top of each cupcake. Topped with three peanut M&Ms as the eggs, these came out really cute (and tasty, too).

For the cupcake itself, I decided to try out a homemade confetti/funfetti recipe. The almond extract gives them a really nice flavor. Although totally different than the funfetti in a box, these were really good.

As you can see, I used Easter sprinkles in the cake to make it festive looking.

I did run into a bit of a problem with this cupcake recipe. The recipe states that it makes 12 cupcakes. When I divided the batter evenly among all of the cupcake liners, I noticed that they were really full. Against my baker's instincts, I decided to just go with it and trust the recipe. I thought perhaps they wouldn't rise too much.

Wrong. The cupcakes all overflowed, and as a result, I had really crispy edges, and really FLAT cupcakes. They were ridiculous looking. To decorate them, I ended up trimming off the overflowed edges, which worked out, but was a pain. So, in the end, the cupcakes didn't look the way I had hoped, but I was able to salvage them for this purpose.

Lesson learned! I have modified the recipe below... this will probably make about 18-20 cupcakes instead of 12. Just use your best judgment. Next time I make them, I wouldn't fill the cups more than 1/2 - 2/3 full.

Confetti Cupcakes

(Source: Slightly modified from Baking Bites)

Ingredients:
- 1/2 cup milk

- 3 large egg whites

- 1 tsp vanilla extract

- 1/4 tsp almond extract

- 1 1/4 cups all purpose flour

- 1 cup sugar

- 1/2 tsp salt

- 2 tsp baking powder

- 6 tbsp butter, soft

- 1/4 - 1/2 cup rainbow sprinkles (base amount on your preference)

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line a muffin tin with paper liners.

2. In a measuring cup, whisk together milk, egg whites and extracts. Set aside.

3. In the bowl of an electric mixer (or a large bowl if you prefer to work by hand), combine flour, sugar, salt and baking powder. Stir to combine.

4. Cut in butter with the paddle attachment at low speed (or cut in by hand), until mixture is coarse and sandy.

5. Add milk mixture and beat at medium speed for 1 1/2 minutes. Scrape sides of bowl and continue beating for 20-30 seconds. Stir in sprinkles.

6. Fill prepared muffin cups 1/2 - 2/3 full. Bake for for 15 minutes, or until a tester comes out clean. Remove from pan and cool completely on a wire cooling rack before frosting.

Makes 16-20 cupcakes.