Cupcake a Week: Bunny Peeps

It's been a super crazy week at my house! I have been wanting to try and get together some Easter themed posts but there just hasn't been enough time. My mom, sister and brother-in-law came down to visit so I have been spending time with them. On top of visiting with family this week I was running around all over town finishing up last minute preparations for a fundraising event I organized for this morning! I was the race director for the 2nd Annual Bunny Chase 5K and Family Fun Festival which raises money for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society on behalf of the organization Team in Training (more details on this will come soon...the event was a HUGE success, but I'm way too tired to think about going through all the many details right now!). So needless to say, my baking plans for the week were put on the back burner! Then at the last minute I tried to finish up some grand plans I had for some super cute cupcake ideas and the humidity in my house just got the best of my buttercream icing! It has been in the mid 70s here in Alabama the last couple of days and lets just say my buttercream just didn't want to cooperate!

Since the race I coordinated was called the "Bunny Chase" I figured it would be a fun idea to get one of the most popular Easter sweets, Peeps and use them as a fun cupcake decoration on top. Let's just say things didn't turn out as planned. After piping on some cute swirls of icing, sprinkling some pastel sprinkles on top and then adding the Peep...well let's just say the icing started to run and melt over the sides of the cupcakes causing the Peeps to tilt.

Look at those poor blue bunnies leaning over....

I did manage to get about half of the cupcakes to turn out ok!

This was probably still one of the better cupcakes, you can see the texture of the icing swirls still, the icing isn't running over the edge and the Peep is standing tall!

But since I was having so much trouble with those crazy marshmallow bunnies crushing the buttercream I decided to just ice the remaining cupcakes without the Peeps.

All in all the cupcakes turned out to be a success at the fundraiser this morning!

I had another super cute cupcake idea I had planned to share with you. My sister sent this bunny cupcake idea to me and we were going to make them together this weekend! So I went out and got all the supplies, and just tried to put one together and let's just say this turned into disaster. I think it's something about the humidity in my house and placing an object on top of the buttercream (in this case a donut hole if you check out the recipe) that just isn't a good combination. About 5 seconds after placing the donut hole ontop of the cupcake it just slide right off dragging half the buttercream with it. As a matter of fact, have you ever tried to cover a round donut hole in icing...yeah let's just say that is one sticky mess! I think this McCormick Bunny Cupcake idea is just too good to be true. I'm convinced there must be some food styling tricks here that helped this photo look so great b/c my pink bunny didn't have a chance in ever looking this good. If anyone has ever seen this idea, tried to make them or even been successful in making these bunny cupcakes before please let me know...I'd love to see a photo to prove that it is possible!

(photo from McCormick website)

Hope everyone has a Happy Easter!