Easter Cupcakes

I needed to make Easter cupcakes to take to our family Easter celebration this year. Last year, I make some cute little bunny butt cupcakes (I'll find a pic and post it later), so I couldn't just make cupcakes and plunk them down on a plate...

My mom suggested a "cupcake bouquet," and I thought that was a fantastic idea, being spring and all!

I started by making two boxes of vanilla cake batter and pouring it into mini cupcake/muffin pans. I only made 96, but still had batter left over.



After they cooled, I made a lemon buttercream frosting. DELICIOUS.

(I used three sticks of softened, unsalted butter and enough powdered sugar and lemon juice to make it taste right...sorry, no measuring) and whipped it in the blender til it was fluffy.



I picked a few pretty colors (gel food coloring really is the best) and dyed the frosting.

Then I just made up some designs...I mostly used a plastic bag with a corner cut off rather than a special tip for a pastry bag.


Then, I jammed a skewer through the bottom of the cupcakes to make "stems." I was afraid they would slide down the stick, so I first put a sticky gumdrop on the stick. it worked well to hold the cupcakes in place.


I put a piece of floral foam in the bottom of the pot and started arranging my "flowers." After I had about 30 in each pot (I made two), I cut some leaves from my grapefruit tree and stuck those in along the edges to fill it the empty space around the bottom.


I think they turned out cute!