Wow, Easter came, and went and I was a little surprised to see that not many people actually celebrated the religious side of it. No matter what store I visited, I heard, “But, MOOOOOOOOOM, I want the big Easter basket!“ and, “That candy is gross, I want the expensive kind.” It seems to me that these days, kids are only motivated to do things when rewarded and have come to know holidays as Days When I Get All Kinds of Free Stuff And it Doesn’t Matter if I Was Bad or Not.
P-L-E-A-S-E!
In my house growing up, we didn’t get squat unless we earned it. We played outside most days and drank out of a garden hose. Sure, we had a television, even a video game console but there was grass outside. Plus, you can’t put a sprinkler in the living room, ride your bike around the house or chase your friends playing Cartoon Freeze Tag.
Kids these days just don’t know. They’re too busy shoving Big Macs and Doritos in their mouths, guzzling Mountain Dew while sitting on the living room floor, zombies sworn to obey the Mighty Television God.
Thankfully, I have the same idea my parents did when it comes to holidays and keeping kiddos busy, not spending a lot of money, giving only when deserved and doing things together that do not involve a television and can be taken outside!
For Easter this year, I wanted to keep my two nieces busy, along with my infant nephew. So, I chose to make mini cupcakes topped with cotton candy buttercream and decorated with Robins’ nests. (recipe for cotton candy buttercream from www.cakespy.com)
I’ll admit, one of the girls absolutely refused to help, she was too busy with her Wii. But the eldest, only 10, couldn’t wait to get her apron on. We had LOADS of fun! We used edible grass (bought from Target) and a bag of Whoppers Robins’ Eggs for decor. I think we did a pretty good job, too!
After the cupcakes, we ran around outside, shooting Silly String at one another, cracking confetti eggs on each other, running figure 8’s around the sprinklers and having a grand old time. We even got the Wii addict to join us.
It was an incredibly terrific Easter.
Cotton Candy Robins Egg Nest Mini Cupcakes
CUPCAKES
2 sticks of softened (room temp) butter
2 cups of granulated sugar
4 eggs
3 cups of sifted self-rising flour
1 cup of whole organic milk
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract (clear if you can find it)
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
- Using a mixer, cream butter until fluffy
- Add sugar and continue to cream
- Beat eggs in separate bowl, add to mixture once beaten
- Add flour and milk alternating, beginning and ending with flour
- Add vanilla and butter flavoring to mix
- Scoop batter into mini-cupcake pan (lined with cupcake cups) with ice cream scoop
- Bake for 9-10 minutes, depending on your oven
FROSTING
2 sticks of softened (room temp) butter
6 – 8 cups of confectioners sugar
1/2 cup of whole organic milk
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1 package of cotton candy (can be purchased at any dollar or candy store)
- Using a mixer, cream butter until fluffy
- Add sugar and continue to cream
- Add milk and continue to cream
- Add vanilla and continue to cream
- Break cotton candy into chunks and cream into frosting
- Add frosting gel color to tint to your liking
- Smooth onto cupcakes with spatula
- Arrange edible grass on top of frosting before it sets
- Place 1 to 2 Robins Eggs in center of grass
