Easter Egg Cupcakes

Every holiday is pretty much a family lock down in my family. Don’t bother making other plans because you will be with the family whether you like it or not. After years of this conditioning, I have come to love these days and embrace my inner home-body. My mom, as usual, makes a delicious dinner for the family and… I attempt to help. This year my contribution was going to be these GLORIOUS Easter egg cupcakes… and no one would know what delicious surprise awaited them inside these deceiving little things… or so I thought. I started this project with a lot of determination and gusto but slowly my excitement began to wither and irritation and disappointment set in. All in all, I think these little treats turned out pretty well, considering they were my first attempt; however, they were nowhere near being presentable to anyone but my family. But in the name of baking, I will re-attempt these some other time. The only problems I really ran into were when it came to presentation. I thought I could one up some of the recipes in the blogosphere and dye the eggs before and all would be dandy. Problem. I have never dyed eggs before and have not a clue about the first thing to do. I did some research and some people said to make a dye and vinegar mix. I dipped my eggs in some gel dye mixed with apple cider vinegar. All went well, except for the facts that my hands are now dyes in five different colours. The next problem arose when washing out the shells with water… Did not expect the dye to wash away after they had dried (my bad…) Anyways..  by the end of the cupcake making process my eggs looked like they had been through a war, bruised and worn out. My advice to future bakers, I would stick to white eggs instead of brown which would give the cupcakes a clean-cut look.

(I almost feel like drawing little army uniforms and camouflage on them)

I know this isn’t the best photo to appeal the crowds, but don’t let this turn you off. The recipe is delicious and the eggs stayed perfectly preserved, such a cute snack. Like I said before, next time I would make them with white eggs and decorate after!

As you can see, I started off with a perfect product… *cry*

This is where things turned sour…

And things just got worse.. (make sure you don’t fill your eggs more than 2/3rds)

Although my cupcakes didn’t make in through in perfection, they tasted delicious and I didn’t mind so much after a scrumptious Easter dinner… thanks to mama bear.

Coconut Egg Cucpakes

Adapted from Kiss My Spatula and Martha Stewart Cooking 

Yields 16- 22 Eggs

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 cups cake flour (not self rising), or all purpose flour
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 1/2 sticks unsalted butter, room temperature
• 1 1/8 cups sugar
• 1/4 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• 1/2 cup coconut milk
• 4 large egg whites

Directions

1. To prepare the egg shells, carefully poke a small hole at the bottom of each egg, using a corkscrew bottle opener.
2. Once you have poked a tiny hole, peel back the edges of the hole to expand it a bit. The holes need to be large enough to fit the tip of a piping bag inside.
3. Turn the egg upside-down and dump out the contents, which you can store for other preparations I used a wooden chop stick to help get all of the egg out of the shell.
4. Rinse the insides of the eggs out thoroughly over the sink. Then, immerse them in saltwater for thirty minutes (100 g salt for every 1 liter water). Eggs need to be filled with the saltwater in order to sink.
5. Rinse the egg shells in cold water and lay the eggs hole side down on a paper towel to dry.
6. Drizzle about 1 teaspoon of sunflower oil in each egg and turn/flip it in your hand until the inside is completely covered. Get rid of any excessive oil.
7. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
8. Prepare the cupcake batter.
9.  In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, and salt; set aside.
10. In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat butter and 1 cup sugar until light and fluffy, 3 to 4 minutes, scraping down sides of the bowl as needed. Beat in vanilla.
11. With mixer on low speed, add flour mixture in three parts, alternating with the milk and beginning and ending with the flour; beat until just combined. Transfer mixture to a large bowl; set aside.
12. In the clean bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the whisk attachment, beat egg whites on low speed until foamy. With mixer running, gradually add remaining 1/8 cup sugar; beat on high speed until stiff, glossy peaks form, about 4 minutes. Do not over-beat.
13. Gently fold a third of the egg-white mixture into the butter-flour mixture until combined. Gently fold in remaining egg-white mixture.
14. Place the prepared egg shells into a cupcake tin. Use aluminum foil to help them stand upright.
15. Load the batter into a piping bag fitted with a round tip. Make sure that the tip can fit the egg hole. If it can’t, expand the hole a little bit at a time until it fits. Fill your eggs about 2/3 full with batter. This is the tricky part. If you underfill the eggs, you won’t have a complete cake egg inside when you crack them after baking. If you overfill the eggs, cake will overflow out of the egg during baking. It looks ugly right after baking, but just remove the excess cake and clean the shell with a damp towel. (It is important to do this when the cake is still hot, when cold it is much harder to clean the shell… I learned this the hard way!!)
16. Bake the eggs at 350º F for 21 minutes. Let cool, crack, and eat!

Preparation time: 60 minute(s)

Cooking time: 21-22 minute(s)

Side note: WHAT TO DO WITH LEFT OVER BATTER

I only prepared 16 eggs to be made into this recipe so I was left over with a fair bit of cupcake batter. So  if you have any leftovers I suggest put them into traditional cupcake liners, but only fill them half way. Drizzle a layer of your favorite maple syrup.. (mines Bourbon maple syrup.. must try!)  and then fill to the rim. They bake for the time as the eggs and turn out really well. I am definitely going to make these again.. mm maple coconut!

Seriously delicious cupcakes either way…