Easter Basket Cupcakes
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Posted: 03/07/24
Updated: 03/08/24
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Make these adorable Easter Basket Cupcakes for a fun, cute and delicious Easter dessert this year! Simply start with a box of cake mix, bake and top with frosting and candy to make them look like Easter baskets.
You may not think to make cupcake for Easter, but after reading this recipe you will! These adorable Easter basket cupcakes are now a part of our baking tradition each year. They’re unique and insanely easy to make, so it doesn’t keep me in the kitchen for a long time.
Cupcake are the easiest thing to theme for every holiday. It’s why we make Christmas cupcakes around December, ghost cupcakes for Halloween, and decorate cupcakes for any other holiday. This sweet treat is great for this bright spring holiday! You’re going to love creating them and serving them at all of your Easter get-togethers.
Why You’ll Love Easy Easter Basket Cupcakes
- These cupcakes for Easter are made from boxed mix instead of from scratch! If you’re a novice baker, you’ll love dressing up a store-bought cake mix.
- This dessert is family friendly! You can even make it a craft and dessert all-in-one and have everyone decorate their own cupcakes. My kids love to help decorate these too.
- Give Easter basket cupcakes as a gift or serve at parties. They’re bakery quality and will put a smile on everyone’s face!
Ingredients for Easter Basket Cupcakes
- White cake mix – I prefer to use white cake mix, but you could also use a yellow cake mix or even strawberry or lemon cake mix too.
- Large eggs – Allow your eggs to come to room temperature before mixing them into the cake batter.
- Half and half – You can use heavy cream or whole milk if you prefer, but I like half and half because it makes the cupcakes perfectly rich.
- Vegetable oil – Don’t have vegetable oil on hand? You can use another neutral flavored oil or even melted butter.
- White vanilla frosting – Grab a can of frosting from the grocery store to use to top the cupcakes!
- Nerd ropes – These can be found on the candy aisle at your local grocery store.
- Coconut flakes – Grab some coconut flakes from the baking aisle.
- Rainbow Twizzlers – Use twizzlers as the handles for each of your Easter basket cupcakes. If you can’t find rainbow twizzlers, you can just use red, brown, or black ones.
- Candy eggs – Grab these on the seasonal Easter aisle at the grocery store.
Helpful Tools
How to Make Easter Basket Cupcakes
- Preheat your oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit and then line a muffin tin with cupcake liners.
- Then pour the vanilla cake mix into a large mixing bowl and then whisk in the eggs, half and half, vegetable oil until it is thoroughly combined.
- Scoop the cupcake batter into the muffin tins and fill until each one is about 3/4 of the way full. Bake in the preheated oven for 19-23 minutes and then remove them from the muffin tin.
- Allow the cupcakes to cool on a wire rack for 30 minutes to an hour.
- Once completely cool, add frosting and then place a nerds rope around the outer edge of the cupcake. Press it gently into the frosting so it stays in place and then sprinkle coconut flakes in the center.
- Top with candy eggs and then take a Twizzler and push it into both sides of the cupcake top to create a handle for each Easter cupcake basket.
- Make any finishing touches and then enjoy!
How to Store Easy Easter Basket Cupcakes
This Easter dessert doesn’t store very well because the candy will get soggy, but I doubt you’ll have any leftovers anyway! They’re so yummy, they get gobbled up quickly.
If you do end up with some leftovers, I recommend only storing undecorated cupcakes. You can decorate them on the day you plan to serve them! Store you undecorated cupcakes, lightly covered, at room temperature for 3-5 days.
If you have decorated cupcakes that you need to store, lightly cover them and keep them at room temperature for 3-5 days. But please note that the candy will likely bleed and get soggy.
What can I use in place of candy eggs on easter basket cupcakes?
Candy eggs look the cutest on these Easter cupcakes, but they can be difficult to find sometimes since they’re so popular. If you can’t find them, you can use jelly beans or M&M’s!
What flavors of cake mix can I use?
White cake mix is what I typically use, but really you can use any cake mix! Carrot cake mix would be festive and fun, but you could also use colored cake mix or rainbow sprinkle cupcake mix.
Pro Tips for the best Easter Basket Cupcakes
- This is a very adaptable recipe! Add sprinkles, extra candy, peeps, or anything else that you want.
- You can easily ice these cupcakes for Easter by using a piping bag. But if you don’t have a piping bag, you can use a zip top plastic bag with the corner snipped off. A knife that is not serrated could work too!
- Add an extra fun surprise to your cupcakes by removing the center and filling it with extra frosting or some sprinkles!
Have fun making the cutest candy cupcakes this Easter and be sure to let us know how they turn out!
More Cupcake Recipes You’ll Love
- Turkey Cupcakes are the most adorable sweet treat to make for the Thanksgiving holiday.
- Make some Grinch Cupcakes around Christmastime for a fun and festive dessert.
- We love making 4th of July Cupcakes for all of the patriotic holidays year-round.
- Celebrate the fall season with Pumpkin Cupcakes with Cinnamon Cream Cheese Frosting.
Did you make this? If you snap a photo, please be sure tag me on Instagram at @julieseatsandtreats or #julieseatsandtreats so I can see your yummy treat!
Easter Basket Cupcakes
Easy cupcakes that are decorated with frosting and candy to look like Easter Baskets!
cupcakes
Ingredients
- 15.25 ounces white cake mix (1 box)
- 3 large eggs
- 1 ¼ cup half and half
- ½ cup vegetable oil
- 15.6 ounces white vanilla frosting (1 container)
- 20-24 Nerd ropes
- 2 cups coconut flakes
- 12.4 ounces Rainbow Twizzlers (1 bag)
- 9 ounces candy eggs (1 bag)
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit and line two muffin tins with cupcake liners, set aside.
- Mix together the cake mix, eggs, half and half and vegetable oil in a large mixing bowl until smooth, about 2-3 minutes.
- Scoop the batter into the prepared muffin tins filling each liner ½ -⅔ full of batter.
- Place in preheated oven and bake for 19-23 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center of a cupcake comes out clean and the top of the cupcakes bounces back after being gently tapped.
- Remove the cupcakes from the oven and the muffin tin and allow to cool completely before decorating, about 30 minutes to an hour.
- Frost a cupcake with a layer of frosting and then wrap one Nerd rope around the edge to create the lip of the basket. Press the edges together.
- Sprinkle some of the coconut into the center of the “basket”.
- Place several eggs in the center of the cupcake.
- Take a rainbow Twizzler and push an end into either side of the cupcake to make a basket “handle”. Be sure that your Twizzler is inside the nerd rope.
Tips
This Easter dessert doesn’t store very well because the candy will get soggy, but I doubt you’ll have any leftovers anyway! They’re so yummy, they get gobbled up quickly.
If you do end up with some leftovers, I recommend only storing undecorated cupcakes. You can decorate them on the day you plan to serve them! Store you undecorated cupcakes, lightly covered, at room temperature for 3-5 days.
If you have decorated cupcakes that you need to store, lightly cover them and keep them at room temperature for 3-5 days. But please note that the candy will likely bleed and get soggy.
Nutrition Information
Serving: 1cupcake, Calories: 324kcal (16%), Carbohydrates: 49g (16%), Protein: 4g (8%), Fat: 13g (20%), Saturated Fat: 8g (50%), Polyunsaturated Fat: 2g, Monounsaturated Fat: 2g, Trans Fat: 0.1g, Cholesterol: 26mg (9%), Sodium: 193mg (8%), Potassium: 80mg (2%), Fiber: 1g (4%), Sugar: 32g (36%), Vitamin A: 102IU (2%), Vitamin C: 1mg (1%), Calcium: 80mg (8%), Iron: 1mg (6%)
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