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Piped Chocolate Bunny And Egg Easter Cupcake Toppers
Published 20 February 2013 by Veronica Stillwater
Use your grass tip/nozzle and plain tip/nozzle to create some cute cupcakes!
This week I thought I would get some practice in for Easter. I wanted to create little rabbits and some pretty chocolate decorated mini Easter egg toppers. Chocolate is such a wonderful ingredient and seemed to be the perfect choice for making some cute toppers. They are really easy to do, are fun to make and are fun cupcakes to present to your guests. I didn't use a template with the bunny shape being really easy, I didn't feel it necessary but you can create one if you need to. It took one practice run before perfecting the piping technique required to get the right shapes to form and I was making the chocolate toppers, all twelve in minutes. I made up some spares in case of breakages with chocolate being quite delicate, although none had broken in the process and so there were some extra chocolate bunny nibbles saved and stored in an airtight container for another day. I hope you enjoy this week's recipe.
For the toppers:
You will need
2 heatproof microwaveable bowls
2 piping bags
2 small plain tips/nozzles
2 Sheets of greaseproof paper
Small clean paint brush
Ingredients:
50g white cooking chocolate
150g dark cooking chocolate
Gold lustre dust
Small amount cake decorators alcohol
Place the dark chocolate in one of the bowls and heat on high power in the microwave. Set the cooking time on the microwave for 2 minutes and to prevent the chocolate from burning, allow to cook uninterrupted for 1 minute. Once 1 minute cooking time is reached, continue to heat the chocolate checking at every 10 second intervals until melted fully, this way the chocolate won't burn or overcook. Once melted, allow to cool for a minute or two before pouring the chocolate into your piping bag ready with the small plain nozzle.
On one of the sheets of greaseproof paper, pipe the rabbit shapes. Pipe 12 for toppers and a few extra in case of breakages. To pipe a rabbit shape, pipe the ears first, allowing the chocolate shapes to form as you pipe, applying moderate pressure. Once the ears are piped, start to pipe a small circle approx 3-4mm just below the ears, pipe in the one spot with the tip pointing downwards and allow the chocolate circle to bulge as you apply a little more pressure to allow the chocolate to flow out and spread naturally. Once the circle is formed for the head and has met the ears with having bulged out to take shape, pipe the body. Again, the starting point of where you pipe the body, will need to be approx 3-4mm below the head. Pipe in the one spot with the tip pointing downwards in the same way applying pressure as done so for the head, allow the chocolate to spread naturally and for the body circle to meet the head circle. Once the rabbit shape is formed repeat until you have 12 toppers and make a few spares in case of breakages. With any remaining chocolate, pipe small Easter eggs on to the other sheet of greaseproof paper. Start in one spot, allow the chocolate to bulge and with the tip just below the chocolate surface chocolate level, guide the tip and move it forward slightly whilst applying light pressure to create the oval shape. Allow to set.
Once the rabbits and eggs have set, place the white chocolate in one of the bowls and heat on high power in the microwave. Heat the same way as the dark chocolate as per the above until melted. Allow to cool for a minute or two and pour into your piping bag ready with your plain tip. Pipe a small dot of white chocolate on each of the rabbits to create a tail. Any remaining white chocolate can be used to make extra eggs and to decorate the dark chocolate eggs already made. Allow to set. Once set you can add a little additional gold detail by adding just a drop or two of alcohol with the gold lustre dust and paint on to high light edges or to add a bit of shimmer to the eggs for decoration. Set aside.
For the cupcakes:
You will need:
Large mixing bowl
Spatula
12 cup muffin baking tray
12 muffin paper cases
Teaspoon
Tablespoon
Ingredients:
125 butter or margarine
125g sugar
225g self raising flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
3 medium sized eggs
100ml milk
2 heaped tablespoons cocoa powder
Turn on the oven and set to 180°
Place the butter and sugar in the large mixing bowl, using the spatula to blend the butter and sugar well beat until pale in colour, until it turns creamy, light and fluffy in texture. Add 1 egg at a time and beat in until the egg is fully combined each time. (The mixture will not curdle as long as you beat it enough with each additional egg, you should have the appearance of a light mousse like texture). Once you have added and beaten in all the eggs, add the remaining ingredients and lightly fold in until a really light fluffy spoon dropping consistency is achieved.
Place a heaped tablespoon of the mixture in each of the muffin cases and bake for approx 30-40 minutes, checking their progress at around 30 minutes into cooking time. The cakes should be risen with a perfect mound formation taking shape on the top. You can always test by inserting a clean skewer into one of the cakes, if it comes out clean they are ready, if not return to the oven checking with the skewer again at 5 minute intervals. Once baked, remove from the oven using oven gloves and allow to cool completely. (You can remove them from their muffin tray and place on a wire rack to cool to avoid any further cooking or any sweating) I never use a wire rack, maybe I should, but I have never found the need to. You can always just remove the cupcakes from their muffin tray cups and place them on the small spaces between the cups on the tray to stand and cool if you don't have a wire rack.
For the grass frosting:
You will need:
Mixer
Piping bag
Grass tip/nozzle
Spatula
Ingredients:
45g butter
650g icing sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1-2 teaspoons hot water
Pinch of powdered green food colouring
With the exception of 1 teaspoon of hot water, place all the ingredients in the bowl of the mixer and place a clean tea towel over the machine to cover the surface area of the bowl ensuring the tea towel can not be trapped in the whisk or any part of the machine to avoid the icing sugar leaving a dust trail across the kitchen. Star on a low speed setting to incorporate the ingredients and mix until well blended, switch to a high speed setting until a creamy piping texture is achieved. Using the spatula, spoon the frosting into your piping bag ready with the grass nozzle.
Pipe the grass detail on each of the cupcakes. When piping, applying moderate pressure and being quick is the key for grass detail. Start to pipe in the one spot, slightly lifting the bag very slowly, almost as if you were to pull the strands up, once they are long enough, stop applying pressure and pull the piping bad up and away and repeat until the top of each cupcake is covered with the piped grass. Place a rabbit and egg topper on each of the cupcakes, if some are too big to hold themselves up, you can pipe a small amount of any remaining green buttercream visually hidden just behind each rabbit to serve as a support and they are ready to serve and enjoy! Until next week! Happy baking!
