Easter treats

Last week I was asked by Countdown Supermarkets to come up with a couple of Easter baking treats to share. I do my weekly groceries shop at Countdown using their online delivery service (LOVE this service) and have done so for a few years now so it was great to be asked to share some ideas! I'm all for baking that is easy and that appeals to kids so I chose two recipes that will be handy for you to have-  it's always good to have an easy cupcake recipe for kids parties or celebrations/ holidays/ birthdays, and a basic sugar cookie recipe will always come in handy too. So my two recipes are:

Easter Egg Nest Chocolate Cupcakes

and

Easter Egg Cookies

Thanks to Countdown I was able to buy the goodies in this pic to make my two recipes- they have a huge range of Easter treats in store now, plus they always have a great range of baking and decorating products. 

I spotted so many great Easter eggs for the kids when I was in there the other day so I thought I'd share some of them with you as well...

All Blacks easter egg, Peter Rabbit, Lindt Pirate Bunny and Easter Egg, Fire Station easter egg box

Ferero Rocher Bunny (one for us mums :), Kinder Surprise Maxi egg with toy, Robin Edible Eggs (comes with pens that you can decorate the eggs with), Mr Men book and easter eggs

I also spotted these cut out bunnies - only $4 for 25 sheets of them which I'm going to use for my next kids craft class, and would also be ideal for teachers! Countdown also had some cute little buckets so I bought this mint one for our easter egg hunt.

So here are my recipes...

Easter Egg Cookies

Kids will love these as they can have fun decorating them using icing pens and cake decorations.

125g butter, softened

1/2 cup of caster sugar

1 egg

half a teaspoon of vanilla essence

1 cup plain flour

1 cup self raising flour

Icing pens ( I bought the box of glitter pens and the trio of chocolate icing pens)

Soft sugar pearl cake decorations

Pettinice ready to roll fondant icing

Water or glucose syrup

Preheat oven to 160 C or 140 C fan

Line two baking trays with baking paper

Cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy

Add the eggs and vanilla and mix

Add the flours and fold in to form a dough

Place your dough on a piece of baking paper and add another piece of baking paper on top

Roll your dough to about 5mm thick

Using an easter egg shaped cookie cutter cut out eggs and place on the prepared baking trays

Re-roll dough and repeat until you've used all the dough

Bake for 10-15 minutes until golden

Cool on a wire rack

Roll out a chunk of the Pettinice icing as thin as possible and use the easter egg cookie cutter to again cut out egg shapes. Use either water (brush onto the back of the fondant eggs) or glucose syrup to stick the fondant egg to the cookie. This is optional- you could just leave the cookies as is to decorate.

Decorate using the icing pens and sprinkles

Easter Egg Nest Chocolate Cupcakes

These delicious chocolate treats are perfect for Easter and your kids will love the little nest of eggs!

Makes approx 18 medium sized cupcakes

1 and a half cups of Self Raising Flour
1 cup white sugar
2 tablespoons cocoa
1/2 cup of milk
2 eggs
125g butter, melted
1 tsp vanilla extract.

1. Preheat oven to 180oC conventional or 160oC fan-bake. 
2. Line cupcake tins with 18 cupcake cases
3. Melt butter. 
4. Put all ingredients in a bowl and beat on medium speed for five minutes

5. Spoon tablespoon size into muffin tins or cup cake cases.   I find an ice-cream scoop the perfect size to fill the cupcake cases- one big scoop per cupcake is enough.

Bake for approx 15 minutes or until cakes spring back lightly when touched- or check using skewer. Transfer to a wire rack and let cool.

Chocolate Buttercream Icing

100grams softened butter

2 cups Icing Sugar

1/4 cup cocoa powder

1 tablespoon hot water

1. Cream the butter until pale and fluffy

2. Beat in the icing sugar ( I use an electric beater) one cup at a time

3. Add the hot water if needed

4. Use an icing bag with icing tip (you can buy these at Countdown- look for 'disposable icing bags' - they come with different icing tips.) Cut the pointy part of the bag off (see pic) 

and place tip inside the bag and push it through the hole you've cut.  

Fill up the bag with the chocolate icing

5. Ice your cupcakes

6. Decorate using broken pieces of flake to make the nest, and add two mini eggs on top, or one mini creme egg

I hope you like these recipes - would love to hear if you make either or both of them! Countdown is going to help you with that by giving every mousehouse reader a $5 off voucher to use with your next online order! (just put the code in the box that says 'coupon code' at check out)

Here's the code : YUM

And check out Countdown's Pinterest Page for loads more delicious recipe ideas http://www.pinterest.com/countdownnz/ 

and for Easter recipes their "Eggscellent Easter" pin board is full of great ideas!  http://www.pinterest.com/countdownnz/eggscellent-easter/

Happy Easter!

Megan