Easter-ish Cupcakes

If you haven't learned by now, I am obsessed with cupcakes. I love to bake, eat, and talk about cupcakes. And since I just happen to have a 3-day weekend to celebrate Easter and all this spring-like weather we are having (actually it just snowed a few days ago...crazy, huh?), I decided to bake some Easter-y cupcakes. My sister came home from college, so she "helped" me bake (not really, she watched me bake, then helped with the funnest part...frosting). We decided to just do a simple chocolate cupcake with vanilla frosting, then dye the frosting in spring-like colors. *See previous cupcake post for chocolate cupcake recipe*

We baked a few large cupcakes, but mostly mini cupcakes. We visited my grandma yesterday, so I wanted to bake mini cupcakes to give to her.  The cupcakes turned out wonderful! As always, this chocolate cupcake recipe never fails, and the frosting...well, that's a simple buttercream frosting. Can't really screw that one up, now can we?

While the flavor gets an A+, the frosting method was a little more complex. We decided to try something I've never done before. I've seen it being done on baking shows, so I really wanted to try it. My sister and I divided up the frosting in separate bowls and dyed half of it pink and half blue. Then, I fetched my trusty pastry bag and set it down flat on the table. I filled the "bottom" (or side...however you look at it) with blue, then I put the pink on top. I didn't push the frosting all the way to the tip. I grabbed the bag in my hand and gently squeezed so the colors were equal, right next to each other. Then, the frosting began!

**Tip: When frosting with dual colors, it helps to work with another person so one can hold the bag open and the other can put the frosting in the bag.

The frosting colors together looked like cotton candy, and I think that confused my grandma. We told her it looked like cotton candy and she thought we said it was cotton candy-flavored...so she gave us a weird look. But she ate three minis, so I think she liked them! That's always a good sign.

Happy Easter, everyone!