Cadbury Egg Cupcakes!

I know I promised this recipe yesterday, and I apologize for my tardiness in posting. This weather has been wreaking havoc on my sinuses and I just haven't been myself.

Anywho, on to the fun part - my recipe for Cadbury Egg Cupcakes: milk chocolate cupcakes with a Cadbury creme filling and a Cadbury creme buttercream. Enjoy!

First, make the cupcakes.

Ingredients (for 12 cupcakes)

• 1 c all-purpose flour
• 1/4 c cocoa powder
• 1/4 tsp baking soda
• 1/4 tsp baking powder
• 1/8 tsp salt
• 8 tbsp unsalted butter, at room temperature
• 3/4 c sugar
• 1 egg
• 1 egg yolk
• 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
• 1/2 c buttermilk
• Chocolate from 4 Cadbury eggs (cream scooped out), melted and cooled

Directions

1. Preheat to 350 F
2. Whisk together flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, baking powder, and salt. Set aside.
3. In a stand mixer (or with a hand mixer and a large bowl), beat the butter at medium speed until soft and creamy. Add the sugar and beat for two minutes, til blended. Add the egg, then the yolk, beating for 1 minute between each addition.
4. Beat in the vanilla, then reduce the mixer speed to low and add half the dry ingredients, mixing only to combine. Add the buttermilk, mixing until incorporated, then mix in the remaining dry ingredients. Add the melted chocolate, mixing it in by hand with a rubber spatula.
5. Divide the batter evenly into lined cupcake tins. Bake for 22 - 25 minutes, or until the tops of the cakes are springy and a tester inserted in the centers comes out clean. Cool completely.
6. Once cooled, cut small cones out of the top of each cake with a paring knife. Then, cut the tips off of each cone, creating a small lid for each cupcake. You’ll replace the “lid” once you’ve filled the cupcakes.

Then, make the crème filling.

Ingredients

• 1/2 stick (4 tbsp) butter, softened
• 1/4 c light corn syrup
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1 drops orange extract (optional)
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 1-2 c powdered sugar
• Yellow food color

Directions

1. Place the butter in the bowl of a stand mixer with paddle attachment (you can also use a hand mixer). Add the syrup, salt, orange extract (if using), and vanilla and mix on medium-low til combined.
2. Turn the mixer to low and slowly add the powdered sugar til consistency is smooth but not too thick to spread (similar to the inside of a Cadbury egg).
3. Place 1/3 of the mixture into a small bowl and add enough food color to obtain desired color (note: don’t use gel color, you won’t get the pigment you want. I used an entire tube and only got a pale yellow. Stick with the liquid stuff.)
4. Using icing bags or a ziplock with a small hole cut in a corner, fill each cake partially with a small amount of yellow crème filling, following with the white crème filling. Replace the tops of the cupcakes to seal in the filling.

Finally, make the buttercream.

Ingredients

• 2 sticks butter, at room temperature
• Powdered sugar
• Milk
• Crème filling from 4 Cadbury eggs (scraped out from the eggs used in the cakes)
• Vanilla
• Yellow food coloring
• Mini-Cadbury eggs

Directions

1. In the bowl of a stand mixer (or with a hand mixer), cream the butter til light and fluffy. Slowly add in powdered sugar until desired consistency is reached. Add in milk (I use anywhere between 1-4 tbsp depending on the day and my mood) and Cadbury crème and beat til fluffy. Add in vanilla to taste and additional powdered sugar as needed to maintain consistency.
2. Separate out 1/3 of the buttercream into a smaller bowl. Tint with yellow food coloring as desired (again, stick with the liquid stuff. The gel is a joke as you can see from the lack of color in my photos).
3. Frost cupcakes first with white buttercream, then a swirl of yellow.
4. Top with a mini Cadbury egg. 

Aren't they fun?!? Enjoy, y'all.

Easter Weekend Recap!

Gotta love a four-day wekend, right? It's such a blessing that my office gives us both Good Friday AND Easter Monday off. It's a nice time to stop, breathe, and catch up a little. Especially after the weekend I had - not that I'm complaining. It was only busy because we have so many sweet people to share our time with. So, I'll give you a recap - day-by-day to make it easier.

THURSDAY
We started our weekend with a Ben Rector concert at George's. Ben was awesome, as always, and even sang a couple new songs that I can't wait to get, particularly his "I Like You" song. Heard it yet? It's lovely.

Sidenote PSA for all Fayetteville concert goers:

• If you decide to get so tipsy at a concert that you bump into me while Instagramming the twelfth selfie of you and your friends of the night, I will push you back. If you fall over, it's not my fault. And I will laugh while not helping you up. 
• If your date is so tipsy that she cannot hold herself up, it is not my job to help you with her. If she leans against me, I will move out of the way slightly. If she falls over, it's not my fault. 
• If you consistently block my view with your smartphone because you're trying to Vine the whole damn concert, I will slowly increase the volume of my passive aggressive comments made in your direction until they can be heard over the music. Vine that. 
• It is not my job to forfeit my hard earned spot on the jam packed floor so that you can "dance" with your date. Take it elsewhere or don't bump into me. And don't you DARE give me a dirty look when I don't move for you. Unless you want me to kick you, that is.

Ok, off my soapbox now. Keep it classy, Fayetteville.

FRIDAY
I spent the afternoon crafting an Easter basket for The Boy. I found a tie that matched my dress so preciously that I couldn't help but get it for him. I added a few hidden-message eggs to keep it festive.

Ever made hidden-message eggs? It's not as simple as you'd think, but after the first one, it gets a whole bunch easier. If you wanna try it next year, here's what you'll need: eggs, something sharp (like a knife or needle), several toothpicks, and a bowl (or sink).

You'll poke a hole in both sides of the egg, making one hole larger than the other. Then blow air through the egg on the side with the smallest opening. It helps if you shake the egg up a little to loosen the insides a bit. I then ran water through mine and let them dry overnight.

Once dry, I wrote tiny notes for each egg, rolled them up, and slipped them into the egg. He had to crack them to get to the message - which I think is WAY more fun than opening the plastic eggs.

That night, we went to the Good Friday service at TGC, during which The Boy played a beautiful solo, and wrapped up the evening over milkshakes and games at our friends' new house.

SATURDAY
I started the morning out with a manicure - love having fresh nails - then met The Boy in Bentonville for lunch. His sweet cousin Emma has recently decided to attend the U of A for college and we wanted to get together with her for a quick chat about what to expect, where to live (or not to live), where to eat (or not to eat), etc.

We had lunch at the Station Cafe - a cute little restaurant on the square - and I put together a fun little "happy" (with a few of my favorite Fayetteville things) to welcome her to this sweet little town I love so much.

She got:

• A Bliss cupcake (Razorback red velvet, of course)
• A Riffraff AR Love koozie
• An Arsaga's coffee gift card
• Razorback cheek tattoos and earrings

If you're local and unfamiliar with any of the spots linked above, you haven't truly experienced the best this town has to offer. Go check 'em out.

After lunch, we stopped by Gran's to deliver a birthday gift and steal some hugs, stopped at Bentonville's new fancy Harps for cupcake supplies, then swung by his parents' to borrow a cupcake tin and mixer. 

The rest of the evening was a blur of flour and powdered sugar that resulted in these:

Cadbury Egg Cupcakes. Recipe to follow tomorrow.

SUNDAY

He is risen! 

I love Easter Sunday. I love all the kiddos dressed up in pressed shirts and frilly dresses. I love the buzz in the air. I love how everyone smiles and hugs and just seems happy.

This was one of those happy days. I ended up working in the nursery during the service (unplanned but a blessing just the same), meaning I missed the message. However, I've found that my mornings spent surrounded by two year-olds proclaiming that "Jesus is alive" are sometimes even more of a message than one delivered from the pulpit. Those sweet faces made my morning. 

After church, we met my family in Rogers for lunch and an Easter egg hunt. We had a great time finding the eggs the kids missed and re-hiding them...in places they'd already checked. Josh kept finding eggs in the same place and exclaiming "wait...I already found this one! What's going on?!?"

After time with my family, we headed over to The Boy's parents' for coffee and cake...and croquet it turned out. It was such a lovely day that we couldn't stand to be inside. And, since croquet is pretty much the one game you can play in a dress and heels and without the threat of something flying at your face, it won. Watching the adults explain the game to the kiddos was about as much fun as the game itself. 

Oh, that and chasing down dogs that were chasing down croquet balls as they rolled across the lawn. Don't try to play croquet with two dogs that are obsessed with fetch. People will laugh at you as they ride by on their bikes because you're shouting "No, Gigi. Drop it. Give it back. Okay, now where was this one again?"

Everyone seemed to enjoy the game, though. Even if The Boy did beat me on purpose (I was totally beating him, by like A LOT, and after I pointed it out, he made this stupid comeback and beat my by about four turns...tell me that wasn't deliberate).

After the game, we spent the afternoon on the porch, watching the girls play with dolls and trying to keep the dogs from fighting over EVERY TOY THEY COULD FIND. At one point I ended up with three bones in my lap to stop the arguing. 

All in all it was a good weekend. A sweet, restful time with family and friends and beautiful weather to boot. Hope y'all's was equally enjoyable.

Happy Easter, friends!

PS: Aren't our matching outfits cute? ;)