Hatching Peeps Cupcakes

Happy Easter everyone!  

 The peeps have just hatched!

These are dark chocolate fudge cupcakes with coconut whipped cream filling, vanilla frosting and green coconut grass!

You can make any chocolate cupcakes you like.  For the coconut I thought a dark chocolate cake mix would be best.

What I am really excited for is the coconut whipped cream filling.  I got the idea here: Nutty Kitchen.

 

To Fill the Cupcakes: I used the Cuisipro Cupcake Corer, pictured above.  Press the bottom of the corer into the top of the cupcake and twist slightly.  Pull the corer out and eject the cupcake center.  I used 2 teaspoons to fill the cupcakes.  Then press the cupcake center into the top of the filling. (Makes it easier to frost the cupcakes when you are using an icing knife)


Next choose any frosting you would like and use a few drops green food coloring to dye it.  I choose vanilla frosting.

For the coconut grass, take about 2 cups of sweetened shredded coconut add 10 drops of green food coloring.  Mix and adjust color as needed. Place on top of frosted cupcake.  Before I put the coconut grass on I added sprinkles for a fun spring look.


And we can't have hatching peeps with out the eggs!  For the eggs I used vanilla melting wafers.  You can use white chocolate too.  Place the wafers in a microwavable bowl, microwave for 10-15s at a time until fully melted, stir well.  Place melted chocolate into a piping bag or use a Ziploc bag with the tip cut off.

Before piping the eggs I had sketched out a quick template for the broken eggs. (see picture below).
 Next I piped the outline of the egg, filled in.  Then to smooth out the eggs I used a tooth pic.  To harden the eggs place in freezer for at least an hour, I left mine in over night.

To secure the chicks onto the cupcakes I used toothpicks.  Then place the egg in front of the chicks.  If the eggs  are slipping off use a little bit of frosting to secure.