Easter Basket Cupcakes {Lemon Coconut}

Lemon Coconut Cupcakes with a pudding, buttercream frosting, sour punch straws, shredded coconut, jelly beans and Lindt bunnies to resemble little edible Easter Baskets.  

Easter will be here before we know it, so today I have a fun and yummy treat to share with y'all. I know Easter is always filled with sugary sweets, chocolate bunnies, jelly beans and those famous colored Easter peeps. It's hard to avoid the sugar this time of year, and my mind is already in sugar overload just thinking about it. Tradition is tradition so it's hard to steer clear of all the sweets. 

Honestly I don't put near as much candy as my mom used to put in our Easter Baskets. Instead I try to give my kiddos an even combination of candy and a few fun items (coloring books, crazy socks, books, puzzles, stuffed bunnies, stickers, bubbles, flarp puddy, play doh) and any other fun items I can get my hands on. The Easter department at Walmart usually has a great selection to choose from at great prices.

One thing I always do for any holiday is bake some type of special treat to celebrate (a cake, cookies, or special holiday bread). A week or so back my kids and I made these cute Lemon Coconut Easter Basket Cupcakes that turned out so adorable and they were a huge hit.

I used a Lemon Supreme Cake mix for the cupcakes and Vanilla Pudding Butter Cream for the frosting. If you're a lemon lover you can use a Lemon pudding mix instead of vanilla. I know some folks frown on using cake mixes, but I love them. They come in all sorts of flavors and are perfect for so many recipes.

Also with a few simple changes ingredient wise you can make a boxed cake mix taste just like a bakery cake. I usually add a extra egg than what is called for on the box and use milk in place of water. You can also substitute melted butter in place of oil, butI used canola oil  in this recipe.  
 
The frosting is a new recipe I came across on Pinterest and I love it! It's made from a dry pudding mix and isn't sweet at all. It's light, fluffy and holds it's shape when decorating. With all the pudding flavors out there I can think of so many flavor combinations.  I used a vanilla pudding mix, but I think lemon would pair perfectly with these cupcakes.

All of the ingredients pictured above were purchased at my local Walmart. Start by baking the cupcakes according to the package directions. Add one extra egg and substitute milk in place of water and add the oil. Let the cupcakes cool completely on a baking rack.

Choose some fun items to fill the Easter Basket Cupcakes. I picked out some small Lindt chocolate rabbits, yellow Easter peep bunnies, Starburst jelly beans and Hershey's chocolate eggs. The Hershey's eggs were a bit large, so i think the small robin eggs might be a better option. 

Remove all the candies from their packaging and tint the coconut green (to resemble Easter grass). To color the coconut just combine a few drops of green food coloring or icing paste with 1 teaspoon water; add a couple drops to 2 cups coconut and stir until evenly tinted (I added the coconut to a zip lock bag and shook it to combine). Now your ready to decorate the cupcakes.

Start by filling a pastry bag with frosting and pipe on each cupcake (I used the star tip). Next sprinkle on the colored coconut to resemble Easter grass. 

Add one sour punch straw into each side of the cupcake to make the handle for the Easter baskets (I found the sour punch straws in the checkout isles). Place a chocolate bunny or Easter peep in the center of each cupcake (pushing down into the cupcake). Decorate with desired candies and refrigerate the cupcakes before serving.

Frosting recipe adapted from: Dessert First Dinner Later
Recipe yields: 24 cupcakes