Easter Basket Cupcakes

Just thought I'd share one more treat with you before Easter. These little cuties are Easter Basket Cupcakes. I think big and little kids alike wouldn't mind these baskets for an Easter dessert!

To make them,I baked cupcakes using a boxed yellow cake mix(you could use your favorite). After they cooled, I frosted them with vanilla frosting I had tinted green with a few drops of food coloring. I also tinted coconut with green food coloring for the grass effect that I sprinkled on top of the frosting. I added three Cadbury mini eggs and then put in a chenille stem into each side of the cupcake for the basket "handle." Just remind kids that they can't actually hold their cupcake by the "handle" and to remove the chenille stem before they eat it!

I hope all of you have a very happy Easter!

Cottontail Cones

Here's a cute and quick Easter treat idea for ya!-- Cottontail Cones! These little cones are adorable and would make a fun goodie for an Easter party or a cute addition to your dessert table.

I first saw an idea similar to this a couple years ago in Paula Deen Magazine. You know Paula! She always has cute stuff in her magazine, y'all. Well, I had to give these a try with a little twist. I filled my cones with Cadburry robin eggs! The best Easter candy ever!


To make Cottontail Cones, fill sugar cones with your favorite, small sized Easter candy and top cone with cotton candy! Enjoy and be sure to stop by Mandy's Recipe Box for Totally Tasty Tuesdays where I'm sharing this idea and for other yummy recipes!

Easter Buckets

These will be the kids' Easter buckets this year. I couldn't pass them up when I saw them in Target's Dollar Spot. They are galvanized buckets that are a bit smaller than an Easter basket, but they are a little bigger than the buckets they have had many times in the Dollar Spot. Great spring colors, too! We'll be using these for Easter treats and goodies, but not for hunting eggs. They will need a little more room for that. Good thing I have the other 25 baskets and buckets from past Easters out in our storage building......... Okay, maybe not 25, but close.

I used my Cricut to cut each of the kid's names and applied them to their buckets. Quick, simple and cute! Ivy will love the pink one since she is all about pink at the moment. Laci will love the green since she is so anti-pink right now. Trent, well, I don't think he cares one way or another as long as it has some goodies in it!

Rice Krispy Candy Nests

Hope you all had a wonderful Easter weekend. We sure did. We got to spend time with my mom and dad on Saturday, which was fun. The kids had a good time hunting eggs and getting all those goodies in their Easter bucket from Nana and Granddad. It was also nice to watch the General Conference of our church. It always lifts me up and feeds my spirit. A great way to end an enjoyable Easter weekend.

Now, on to these little nests. I know Easter is over, but I thought I'd show them anyway. I first saw this idea in last year's Easter edition of Paula Deen magazine and knew I wanted to make them. So when my son's school sent home a paper saying they were having a bake sale to benefit Relay For Life and were asking for goodies, I knew these would be a great item.I tried to make the packaging attractive as well so my item would stand out and say "buy me." I placed each one in a plastic baggie with the little zipper part on the top cut off, stapled on a label and added a cute ribbon. I was happy with finished product. Not sure how well they sold because I couldn't attend the sale, but I hope they made a little money for a good cause. Get the recipe below.



Rice Krispy Candy Nests
adapted from Paula Deen magazine
6 cups Rice Krispy cereal
3 Tbsp. butter or margarine
10.5 oz. bag marshamallows
1 bag Cadburry Robin Eggs
pat of butter for greasing pans

Lightly grease 24 muffin cups with butter. Melt 3 Tbsp. butter in large pot over low heat until melted. Pour in marshmallows and stir until smooth. Remove from heat and stir in cereal. Mix well. With clean and buttered hands, put about one handful of mixture into each muffin cup and make a little well or indention in center for candies.Place 3 robin eggs in center of each nest.

Easter Cookies

Yesterday was Laci's Easter egg scavenger hunt at school. Her teacher asked if I would make cookies for the kids to eat after their hunt. You know I love to bake so my answer was yes! I thought this might be a good time to decorate some sugar cookie cut-outs with royal icing. The first time I have ever done this. I saved myself a little work and just used a sugar cookie mix and then cut them out with my egg shaped cutter. I used a meringue powder icing recipe I found here at the Joy of Baking site. She has a regular royal icing recipe using egg whites and the meringue powder one which, like the name says, uses meringue powder instead of raw egg whites. I divided up my icing, colored it and filled piping bags to outline and "flood" the cookies.I'm a little on the fence about the whole royal icing decorating. They turned out good, tasted good and the kids loved them, but they are time consuming. I think these types of cookies might just be "holiday" cookies for me. Maybe at Christmas, Halloween or a birthday. Overall they were a hit. I also made my regulars, Chocolate Chip with holiday M&M's. Can't go wrong with those.


These little bunnies enjoyed finding their eggs throughout the school. It was a fun alternative to a regular egg hunt.

I look forward to a great Easter weekend and while the eggs, bunnies and baskets are all fun, I remember my Savior and try to teach my little family that He is the reason we celebrate Easter. I'm thankful that He atoned for my sins and was ressurected. I know He lives and loves us. Happy Easter.

Easter Sand Buckets

This year instead of an Easter basket, we are giving our kids an Easter sand bucket. I know,right. We're mixing it up and living on the edge. Hahaha!! Since we will be going to the beach in June, I thought, "why not?". We just store away their baskets,which, don't get me wrong, are always fun for the kids, but Easter is the only time they get used. My kids don't really care what the Easter goodies are housed in. They are just excited to get something fun for them. That said, the buckets will get a lot of use at the beach in a couple months.

I found these buckets with shovel at Wal-Mart for $1 each. My kind of price. Then I personalized each one by painting the kids' names on them with white acrylic paint. I'm not counting on the paint to stay on the buckets once the kids start playing with them. If I had a Cricut, which I SO want,or some other cutting tool, I would have used vinyl for their names and they would stay on longer. Use what you have, right. I then filled the buckets with goodies and a few small toys. I try not to go overboard because I know they will have had about 3 egg hunts,with candy, plus an Easter basket from Nana and Granddad by the time they even get their buckets on Easter Sunday. I hope they will like this fun bucket and look forward to using it at the beach!

Easter Fun

Hope everyone had a wonderful Easter celebrating Christ and His resurrection. Of course, a little bit of bunnies and eggs are always fun, too. We had our egg hunt on Saturday. I had a little extra help from Ivy while I was hiding the eggs as she went behind me and picked quite a few of them up. Little stinker! The kids had fun and found a lot of eggs. I have to say, I'm a pretty good egg hider.


On Sunday morning after the kids were all ready for church, we gave them their baskets which they were excited to get. Since it was conveniently so close to time to leave for church, the treats had to wait until we got home. Planned that one! After church we came home and finished up our Easter meal, which was delicious. It was a great weekend for family and memories!