Tag: Easter

Carrot Cake Cupcakes

Nearly a decade ago, I shared a recipe for a Bunny Carrot Cake. Although it’s super cute, I figured it was about time I shared a decidedly less creative dessert that is still perfect for Easter and spring in general: Carrot Cake Cupcakes!

These Carrot Cake Cupcakes are based off the original recipe I shared 9 years ago, but I substituted in walnuts for the raisins. They are topped with cinnamon cream cheese frosting and then sprinkled with carrot-shaped sprinkles to make them extra adorable.

Ingredients (makes approximately 30 cupcakes):

Carrot Cake Cupcakes:
  • 4 large eggs, at room temperature
  • ¼ cup vegetable oil
  • ¾ cup melted browned butter
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 2 cups all-purpose flour
  • 2 cups sugar
  • 2 teaspoons baking soda
  • 1 tablespoon cinnamon
  • 1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
  • 1/4 teaspoon cloves
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • 4 cups loosely packed grated carrots
  • 1 cup chopped walnuts (omit for nut-free)
Cinnamon Cream Cheese Frosting:
  • 2 (8 oz) packages of Cream Cheese, softened
  • 1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened (1 stick)
  • 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
  • 1 tablespoon ground cinnamon
  • 2 (16 oz) packages powdered sugar
  • Easter-themed sprinkles, if desired

Kitchen Tools Used:

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Hot Cross Buns

Today is Good Friday, which means it’s about time I shared a recipe for Hot Cross Buns!

Hot Cross Buns are a sweet slightly spiced bun with dried fruit. A cross made of icing is piped on top. They are traditionally made and served on Good Friday as a way to break the fasting associated with Lent. There are a bunch of superstitions surrounding hot cross buns. My favorite is that gifting a hot cross bun on Good Friday guarantees friendship between the recipient and gift giver for the year.

Hot Cross Buns aren’t exactly the easiest recipe; it took me most of the day to make them because you need time to let the dough rise. But these tasty little guys are worth it.

Bob’s Red Mill hooked me up with some of their awesome products to help make these hot cross buns, including active dry yeast, all-purpose flour, and currants.

Ingredients:

Icing:

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Vegan Chocolate Peanut Butter Nests

Every Easter, my fiance’s mom makes peanut butter nests for her sons to take home. They are made with chow mein noodles, mixed in a melted peanut butter sauce, shaped into little nests and topped with egg-shaped chocolate candies. And I absolutely love them! I look forward to eating more than my share of them each year, but this year I just couldn’t wait.

 

I had a craving for something chocolatey and peanut buttery so, I decided to make mine with semi-sweet chocolate as well as peanut butter. We were visiting my fiance’s brother and his wife last weekend, so I used them as an excuse to make the recipe!

 

They try to eat vegan as much as possible, so when I began assembling the ingredients for this recipe and realized how simple this recipe would be to make vegan, I did so! You can easily make these Vegan Chocolate Peanut Butter Nests non-vegan if you so choose.

 

Ingredients:
1 (12 oz) package chow mein noodles
1 cup roasted unsalted peanuts
12 oz vegan semi-sweet chocolate morsels
1 cup creamy peanut butter
~12 oz Jordan almonds or dark chocolate covered almond “eggs” (or any other candy that is egg-shaped if not making vegan) — you’ll need roughly 85 egg shaped pieces

 

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Easter Basket Snack Pack Pudding Cups #SnackPackMixins

This shop has been compensated by Collective Bias, Inc. and its advertiser. All opinions are mine alone. #SnackPackMixins #CollectiveBias

 

Holidays are a great time to come up with some creative recipes! This recipe is a cute and easy to make Easter dessert using Snack Pack Pudding Cups, Honey Maid Graham Crackers, Oreos, Coconut Flakes, and other Easter Candy to make mini Easter Baskets!

 

 

I picked up all of the ingredients for this recipe at Walmart. The SUPER Snack Packs, Honey Maid Graham Crackers, and Oreos can all be found in the same aisle (at least at my Walmart in Philly)!

 

 

Some stores even have a special display featuring the SUPER Snack Packs and ideas for mixins for Easter. The display has a recipe tear pad with more recipes if you’re looking for more inspiration. (Walmart also has a coupon for $0.50 off SUPER Snack Pack Pudding Cups at the moment.)

 

Ingredients:

  • 1 (6-pack) Creamy Chocolate SUPER Snack Packs
  • 2 Honey Maid Honey-flavored Graham Crackers
  • 6 Oreos
  • 2 tablespoons coconut flakes
  • 1 tablespoon green sprinkles, plus more for decoration
  • “Easter basket candy” of your choice (small chocolate bunnies, chocolate eggs, marshmallow chicks, etc.)
  • 6 pipe cleaners (or fuzzy sticks)

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Peeps S’mores

Anyone else still have a house full of Peeps following Easter? Those poor little marshmallow leftovers are past even their somewhat stale crunchy stage and are just kind of hanging around at this point. So I decided it was about time to put them to good use. Peeps S’mores time!

Ever since I made the S’mores Milkshakes, I have had S’mores on my mind. So what better way to utilize a house full of sugar coated marshmallows than by making a batch of festive after-Easter Peeps S’mores?

Ingredients (makes 2 servings):

  • 2 graham crackers, halved
  • 1 chocolate candy bar, halved (milk or dark, I prefer dark)
  • 2 Peeps

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Nudo Colomba Easter Cake Review

With Easter almost here, I am having visions of Peeps and Cadbury Eggs. I’ve mentioned before my family’s Easter tradition includes a Bunny Cake. But many Italian families celebrate the holiday with a sweet Easter Cake. I personally have never had one before so I was so excited to when Nudo asked me to try their version. Nudo Italia has an absolutely delicious Colomba Easter Cake on their website for a limited time.

photo courtesy of nudo-italia.com

The Colomba cake is filled with tasty bites, including candied orange peel and amaretto. The dove-shaped cake (la colomba means “dove” in Italian) is topped with sugar and almonds.

photo courtesy of nudo-italia.com

This cake is huge, perfect for a large family. I ate this for breakfast and as a dessert (for a few days!) and loved it for both. The cake is fluffy and perfectly sweet.

The cake is delicious with a cup of coffee, espresso, or a hot chocolate. I went with hot chocolate and loved the pairing!

Nudo’s limited edition Colomba ($25) is available on Nudo-Italia.com now. It is the perfect addition to any Easter table, as well as the most delicious gift for a host or hostess.

Bunny Carrot Cake

Every Easter, we have this adorable little bunny cake that shows up for dessert. I honestly don’t know what bakery we get it from, but it always makes me smile. So I thought I’d try to recreate it. Obviously, a bunny would be filled with carrots, so I decided to make a Bunny Carrot Cake with cream cheese frosting, covered in coconut.
I used a recipe from David Lebovitz for the cake and frosting, and used Betty Crocker‘s instructions on how to make it into a bunny.

Ingredients:

Carrot Cake:
  • ¾ cup butter, melted and browned
  • 2 cups all-purpose flour
  • 2 cups sugar
  • 2 teaspoons baking soda
  • 1 tablespoon cinnamon
  • 1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
  • 1/4 teaspoon cloves
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • 4 large eggs, at room temperature
  • ¼ cup vegetable oil
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 4 cups loosely packed grated carrots (about 5 carrots)
  • 1/2 cup golden raisins
Frosting:
  • 2 (8oz packages) cream cheese, at room temperature
  • 1/2 cup unsalted butter, at room temperature
  • 3 cups powdered sugar
  • 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

Additional ingredients:

  • 1 bag of coconut flakes
  • green food dye
  • jelly beans

Tools needed (paid links):

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