Easy being the operative word. This year I’ve been a bit rushed off my feet. So when the issue of Easter themed cupcakes reared its head there was a loud sigh in our household. I didn’t have time for anything fancy involving delicate flowers or butterflies. This year I went for cute, end of story. Oh…and easy. Really easy – the only thing you do need is a grass piping nozzle.
Chick Decoration
Take any cupcake you like. Here’s a link to my favourite lemon cupcake and a gluten free coconut lime cupcake.
Make a portion of vegan buttercream frosting, here is the link: buttercream
You will need:
Grass nozzle for piping (I use Winton’s)
Piping bag (okay…I used a sandwich bag with the corner cut off)
Yellow food dye
Black food dye
Orange food dye
White royal icing – available at all the big supermarkets in premade packs
Make the buttercream frosting and add in ½ tsp of yellow food dye. Depending on the strength of your food dye you will get a vibrant, or pale yellow frosting.
Place the grass nozzle in the bag and load it up. Twist the top of the bag to make sure you don’t end up with yellow icing all over your hands.
Carefully pipe a ‘short’ bit of grass onto the cupcake and repeat until the cupcake is fully covered. It’s a short, sharp, up and down motion you are looking for.
And don’t get fussed about perfection – this is a chick after all and it’s hardly going to looked perfectly coiffed.
Take a bit of the white royal icing and add black food dye to it. To mix it thoroughly you knead the dye into the icing (or buy black icing). You will end up with black fingers. Such is life. Roll it out and cut two circles about 4 mm wide. I just used the circular end of a round piping nozzle but you can cut the circles with a knife if that’s easiest.
Next grab a bit more of the white icing and add in some orange dye. Again knead the icing until you have a consistent orange colour. Shape a small amount into a triangle for the beak.
Pop the eyes and beak on the cupcake in the appropriate place. And voila – a chick cupcake!
