Easter Cup Cakes!!

HAPPY EASTER ALL!! Isn't this such a cute little festival? I went to a Catholic School and as a result had the pleasure to celebrate all Christian holidays and this was one of my favorites. The most fun part was our teachers having us play the Egg hunt! We also had a special craft class on this day where we got to paint on the eggs and decorate it. So, in memory of all those wonderful days I thought I should make something special, fun and Easter appropriate; so here it is! Cute little Easter Cup Cakes which resemble Eggs on Grass!! Hope you all enjoy Easter with these :)

Ingredients:

Dry Ingredients:

All purpose flour - 1 cup

Granulated sugar - 1 cup

Baking soda - 3/4 t sp

Baking powder - 3/4 t sp

Salt - 1/4 t sp

Cocoa Powder - 1/3 cup

Wet Ingredients:

Egg - 1 large

Banana - 1/2 cup (very ripe and mashed)

Vegetable oil - 1/4 cup

Vanilla essence - 1 t sp

Milk - 3/4 cup

Icing:

Butter - 1 cup softened

Confectioners Sugar - 2 cups

Vanilla essence - 1/2 t sp

Green food color - few drops to get desired color.

Topping:

Orange Juice - 1/2 cup ( to keep the cup cakes moist and juicy)

Egg shaped chocolate candies - 36 (3 on each cupcake)

Method:

- Pre heat the oven at 350 F.

- Mix the flour, baking soda, baking powder and Cocoa powder in a large bowl by sifting them together.

- Add the rest of the ingredients and mix well

- In a separate mixing bowl, add the egg and beat lightly, next add all the remaining ingredients and mix well.

- Now add the wet mix into the dry and slowly fold in till everything is combined nicely and there are no lumps 

- Add the mixture in a muffin tray that is either lined by muffin cups or baking spray/butter and flour

- Bake for about 18 minutes or more if required.

- Take the muffins out and let them cool completely.

- Now take a fork and prick all over the muffin, taking care that its not breaking apart a lot. Now, pour a few tsp of orange juice on them.

- For icing, combine all the ingredients together till smooth and add in an icing bag with the desired nozzle on.

- Now decorate each muffin with the icing and finally place the egg shaped candies on top. Voila! Your kids are just gonna love this!

Tips:

- You can store these in fridge for a week.

- You can use any flavoring you like instead of vanilla

- If you like cinnamon or any other flavors, go ahead and add them

- You can also add choclate chips or your favorite nuts inside the batter for extra flavors!

- For the icing add the sugar little by little as depending on texture and consistency of butter the amount needed might differ.

Healthy Twist:

- Cut the sugar quantity to half or use sugar substitutes.

- Add lots of nuts to make this healthy.

- Skip the icing or make one with Greek yogurt as a base. Just replace the butter with Greek yogurt in the icing recipe and reduce the amount of sugar. (Yogurt should not have too much water, just squeeze out extra water using muslin cloth)