Robin Egg Cupcakes
I’m all about the pastel colours at Easter, and these robin egg cupcakes are the perfect festive dessert for Spring.
These easy Easter cupcakes are made with an easy homemade vanilla cupcakes recipe, pale blue vanilla buttercream speckled with chocolate and, of course, the Mini Eggs – is it even Easter until you’ve had your first Mini Eggs?
When it comes to getting the perfect speckle on the cupcakes, I toyed with the idea of grating chocolate into the buttercream but it didn’t look quite right. Also, flicking chocolate “paint” around is way more fun! The perfect shade of pastel blue is made using Sugarflair Ice Blue food colouring on top of a base of white buttercream. You need to add the white so the buttercream doesn’t end up too green because of the yellow in the butter, but using the concentrated paste colouring means you only need a tiny bit (like a bit on the end of a cocktail stick) to get the beautiful robin egg blue.
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Robin Egg Cupcakes
Equipment
- Small Bowl or Eggcup
Ingredients
For the cupcakes
- 170 grams caster sugar
- 170 grams Stork or butter, at room temperature
- 3 medium eggs
- 225 grams self raising flour
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 tablespoon milk
- 80 grams Cadburys Mini Eggs
For the buttercream
- 250 grams unsalted butter, at room temperature
- 500 grams sugar, sifted
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- white food colouring (until desired colour is achieved)
- tiny amount of Ice Blue food colouring
For the speckle
- 1 teaspoon cocoa powder
- 1 teaspoon water
Instructions
To make the cupcakes
- Preheat your oven to 180ºC/160ºC Fan/Gas 4. Line a 12 hole muffin tin with cupcake wrappers. I like to use cupcake wrappers from Purple Cupcakes.
- In a stand mixer, or large bowl using a hand mixer, cream together the Stork/butter and caster sugar until light and fluffy.
- Crack the eggs into a jug and lightly whisk. Add the eggs to the butter and sugar mix, then the vanilla extract, and mix until well combined.
- Add the flour, mixing until only just combined. Using an ice cream scoop (for level cupcakes) or a spoon, divide the mixture between the cupcake cases. They should each be about 2/3 full.
- Bake the cupcakes for 15-18 minutes or until they’re firm to touch and golden brown in colour. As this is a Madeira cake recipe, the cupcakes will not be as pale as other recipes. Allow to cool in the tin for a couple of minutes, then lift them out (I like to stab them with a fork and lift them out of the baking tin) and put them on a wire rack to cool completely.
- Whilst the cupcakes are cooling, make your buttercream. Put the butter in the bowl of a stand mixer and gently beat until soft.
- Start adding your icing sugar, a little at a time until it’s all combined. Add the vanilla extract and white food colouring. When the buttercream looks white, start to add the blue. As the food colouring is concentrated you only need a tiny amount on the end of a cocktail stick. Add the colouring a little at a time so you can get the colour you're happy with.
- When the cupcakes have cooled completely, use a piping bag and a Jem 2D nozzle to pipe a swirl of buttercream on top of each cupcake.
- Make the chocolate speckle by mixing the cocoa powder and water in an egg cup. Dip the bristles of a paint brush into the mixture and then flick them towards the cupcakes. The mixture will go everywhere – you can avoid a huge clean up by doing this on kitchen paper or using a cardboard box as a makeshift spray booth.
- Add 3 Mini Eggs to the top of each cupcake, and your cupcakes are ready!
These cupcakes taste best on the day that you bake them, but they will keep in an air tight container for up to 5 days. You may also freeze the cupcakes, but allow them to stand at room temperature for at least a couple of hours before serving, and be aware that the cupcake wrappers may peel off due to the condensation. They generally don’t keep that long in our house though – they’re delish!
These are the perfect Easter Cupcakes! I’ll definitely be making these for Easter this year!
Yum! This is a great reminder that spring is really coming…soon I hope! Thanks for sharing your recipies.
These look and sound so delicious!
These cupcakes are absolutely adorable. They will be perfect to add to our dessert table this Easter.
Wow! I loved the ice blue frosting colouring. Looks cool. I am going to try an eggless version of the same
These are so cute! I’m definitely going to make this year!
Love cupcakes! These sound delicious, thank you for these great tips and detailed recipe to make these!