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.
