April Fool's Day Cupcakes Are a Fun Surprise Snack

"Would you like a cupcake?"
"Of course!"

 

"Wait... what?"

"April Fools!"

Today's April Fool's Day cupcake is really a piece of toast cut in the shape of cupcake, smeared with chocolate almond butter and cream cheese, and topped with candied sunflower seeds.

The cupcake toast is healthy (when compared to the real thing) and is the perfect April Fool's Day after school snack.

Credit

This concept and all of the food styling was done by Brooke of Sucre Shop!  She's been sharing other cute snack idea on her Instagram feed.  Check them out!

Easter Egg Cupcake People

When reader Christine Mitchell made my Easter cupcakes baked in real egg shells, she filled the shells too high with batter.  The cupcakes overflowed out of the eggs instead of resting neatly inside the egg shell (as shown below).

Instead of tossing the eggs, she created a new Easter sensation - Easter egg cupcake people!

Easter Egg Cookies

Flat Easter egg cookies are fairly common and can be striking and adorable (the Easter egg cookies over at I Am Baker are a prime example).  But, not all of us have the artistic talent, time, or patience to create such intricate cookies.  To make my Easter egg cookies, you need only enough skill to form dough into a shape somewhat resembling an egg.  Trust me, you can do this.  What makes my Eater egg cookies cute is the colored foil they are wrapped in - reminiscent of the ever-so-popular chocolate Easter eggs.

Let's forgot about the cute factor for a minute and focus on the taste of these Easter egg cookies.  They are nutty (I used hazelnuts, but you can choose from any of your favorite nuts) and loaded with coffee flavor.  They taste a bit like biscotti dunked in coffee, but with the texture of Christmas snowball cookies or the similar Mexican wedding cookies.  In fact, I may repeat the Easter egg cookie recipe again as a ball come Christmas-time. 

Easter Egg Cookies Recipe

I based my Easter egg cookie recipe off of the nut ball recipe from The Passion Fruit.  My adapted recipe is below.

Yield: 18 Easter Egg Cookies

Ingredients:

• 1 cup unsalted butter, room temperature
• 1/3 cup brown sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 2 cups flour
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 2 teaspoons instant coffee
• 2 cups finely chopped toasted hazelnuts (or any other chopped nuts)
• powdered sugar, to taste

Special Supplies:

• Colored foil candy wrappers in whatever colors you like (you can buy them at kitchen specialty shops or online)

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 375 F. 
2. In a medium-sized mixing bowl, mix butter, sugar, and vanilla until fluffy.
3. Mix in flour, salt, and coffee. 
4. Stir in hazelnuts. 
5. Shape dough into eggs.  I suggest having an egg on hand as a model.  You could also use an egg serving tray like the one in the photo to test the eggs for size (they will not rise in the oven). 
6. Freeze the cookie dough eggs for 20 minutes to help them hold their shape.
7. Bake on an ungreased cookie sheet or Silpat for 12 minutes. 
8. Once cool to the touch, roll in powdered sugar.  If you lift them off of the cookie sheet too soon, they may crumble in your hands.
9. Wrap in colored foil.

Ginger Coconut Macaroons for Passover

Every year at our potluck Passover, my cousins are responsible for bringing the coconut macaroons.  The whole family (except me) raves about these particular macaroons - purchased from a neighborhood bakery.  Sure, the bakery macaroons are better than the ones from the can that I grew up eating, but I knew I could do better.  This year, I told my mom (our Passover host) that I'd like to take care of all of the Passover desserts - including the coconut macaroons.