Easter is weeks away. We usually host Easter Sunday at our house, and plan to do the same this year. Now that Brody and Owen are both at great ages to start understanding and remembering holiday traditions I am extra excited to come up witha few more things this year. Last year, their Nana hid plastic eggs filled with goodies around our backyard for an easter egg hunt, and that was super cute. This year, with finding out that Owen’s egg allergy is still standing strong I thought it would be fun to implement some non traditional things to do easter weekend as well. A few ideas I have bouncing around my head…
1. Paint a pot, and plant something for spring. No need to get fancy here. I just want to see their cute little hands covered in paint, slathering up a planters pot in colors and teaching them how to tend to their own tiny garden.
2. The one tradition that sticks out the most of course would be dying eggs. Can’t do that with Owen, and I would hate to leave him out of the process. SO, I think we’re going to purchase to blank tee shirts, and either have them paint, or tie dye their shirts. May not be eggs, but it would be cute to see over the next few years how their artistic ablities change.
3. Do something kind for others. Teach the littles about giving, and showing some love to some important people. I’ve had this urge to bake (surprise surprise) or cook something up for some local’s in town, so that will be done Easter weekend as well. Of course, posts about all these adventures will follow!
BACK TO THE CUPCAKES!! This recipe is from Martha… can’t get away from that woman 🙂 But,it is a recipe I have been making for years, since Brody was an itty bitty. The recipe is for mini cupcakes, but I just fill up a cupcake pan and it makes 12 perfect delectable cupcakes. The carrot cake is beyond fluffy and flavorful, and the cream cheese frosting is a sweet tooth’s dream. We omit the raisins, and add a pinch of nutmeg to the cake batter.
INGREDIENTS:
- 1 cup sugar
- 2 eggs
- 1/2 cup vegetable oil
- 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
- 1/4 cup buttermilk
- 1 1/2 cup unbleached all purpose flour
- 1 tsp cinnamon
- Pinch of nutmeg
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 1/2 tsp baking soda
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1 1/2 cup grated organic carrots
- FOR THE FROSTING
- (1) 8oz package of cream cheese at room temperature
- 1 stick unsalted butter at room temperature
- 1 Tbsp maple syrup
- 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
- 2 cup powdered sugar
DIRECTIONS:
Pre heat the oven to 350* Line a cupcake tin with 12 cupcake liners
In a medium-size bowl, whisk together the sugar, eggs, oil, vanilla and buttermilk. Set aside.
In another bowl, whisk together the flour, cinnamon, baking powder & soda, nutmeg and salt.
Add the dry ingredients to the wet in two batches, and mix until just incorporated. Add all of the grated carrots and stir gently until they freckle all of the cake batter. Fill each cupcake cup just shy of 3/4 full. Bake for 17-19 minutes or until an inserted toothpick comes out clean. Let them cool completely before frosting them.
To make the frosting, whip all of the ingredients together with a handheld mixer until light and fluffy. Liberally frost each cupcake, the more the merrier 🙂
Recipe tweaked from: Carrot–Cake Mini Cupcakes – Martha Stewart Recipes