What could be more exciting than Cute Chick Cupcakes for Easter? Soft delicious vanilla cakes with buttercream, that really are addictive.
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Look at those Cute Chick Cupcake little faces.
These cakes stay fresh for days and taste like a vanilla cloud (even without the little faces). The batter can be stirred together too, so you can easily pull them together without too much effort. Of course, I always advise scales for measuring for best results, when baking.
One of the best things I discovered when I was making my Cute Chick Cupcakes for Easter was these perfect cupcake containers. I didn’t need muffin trays and the cupcakes were easy to handle and decorate. No silly peeling papers and greasy drooping appearance. The baking cups are so easy to bake in and just as easy to pack up to give out at Easter or carry to a party!
What flavour are the cupcakes?
These are totally delicious Vanilla cupcakes. They have a great texture…. not too soft and crumbly not too sweet and they seem to get better with age. If only that could be applied to me 🙁
Another advantage of these amazing Vanilla cupcakes is that they don’t become domed. They stay nice and flat, even when you fill them up just a bit too much. The secret is in the addition of oil AND butter. Butter hardens inside the cake crumbs (giving flavour but not moisture) while the oil stays fluid and gives moisture
What will you need to make your Cute Chick Cupcakes?
- Plain Flour. These are not gluten free and not yet tested for that but if you give it a go let me know!
- Caster Sugar or granulated sugar as its know in other places
- Yoghurt or Sour Cream your choice. This enhances the acid flavour and counteracts the sugar. All foods need a balance of sweet, sour, salty and umami (vanilla here)
- Baking Powder for lightness and rise
- Baking Soda for an extra rise and to counteract that acid above. These two powders work together to give you the perfect light cupcake
- Salt. See above
- Butter for texture richness and flavour
- Oil for moisture and keeping qualities
- Eggs for rise, flavour and fluffiness
- Milk to make a thin light batter
- Vanilla. The most important ingredient for a vanilla cupcake. use a lovely strong extract. the recipe also uses a lot of it. it is a vanilla cupcake after all.
To Decorate
- White Sugar icing (supermarket, spotlight)
- Icing sugar
- Colours orange, black, and yellow in gel, not liquid (spotlight, Big W)
- A knife
- circle cutter (or glass)
- rolling pin (or smooth bottle)
Vanilla Buttercream
- Butter
- Icing sugar
- Vanilla
- And 18 to 24 cupcake holders or papers
Decorating your Chic Cupcakes
Pro tip: I always like to colour the icings and get the cutters ready before starting. Keep all icing covered in plastic while working
- Make a hole with a small sharp knife in the centre of the cupcake and dig out the little piece of cake. Fill with buttercream. a
- Using a flat smooth bladed knife, spread the buttercream onto the cupcake, covering the hole filled with buttercream
- Colour and roll out the sugar icing and cut circles that will cover the entire top of the cupcake
- Lift them and put them over the top of the buttercream. The buttercream will act as a very delicious glue for the sugar icing.
Pro Tip: 1. Fill the centres of the cupcakes with buttercream because it’s super delicious. To make this easier, fill a plastic bag or a piping bag with a bit of buttercream and squeeze it into the cupcake whole to make this easier.
Pro Tip: 2. Once you have covered the top with a little icing put the cupcakes into the refrigerator for 10 minutes. This will firm up the buttercream and make it REALLY easy to go back and get it smooth and flat with a knife or small palette knife.
- Once you have the cupcakes covered in the yellow topping it’s time to cut and colour the smaller parts.
- Place the cones on the top of the heads once they have been cut.
- Then the white shells on each of the cakes
Protip: I use a small art paintbrush to add a tiny bit of water to the place where I want the icing to stick. You can use the tip of your finger if you do not have a brush. This will secure the icing in place. *** Remember to only use the very smallest amount of water. The icing is sugar and sugar melts in water!
- Add all the shells and begin on the little eyes. Small balls of black icing make the eyes.
- You can add a small piece of white to the eyes too if you want to make them look shiny
- Now start making the beaks. I have two kinds. The first is two triangles stuck together and the second easier one is just an elongated triangle.
- There are also yellow strips of icing on some chicks too, representing wings!
Find aluminium cupcake holders 7.5 cm and other cupcake decorating supplies at I love this shop.
Love cupcakes. Why not try these too?
Owl Cupcakes
Cute Chick Cupcakes for Easter
Ingredients
- 200 gm caster Sugar 1 cup
- 180 gm plain flour 1 1/4 cups
- 9 gm baking powder 1.5 tsp
- 4 gm baking soda 1/2 tsp
- 2 gm salt 1/2 tsp
- 60 gm unsalted butter, very soft approx 3 Tbsp
- 100 gm whole eggs 2 eggs
- 80 gm sour cream or yoghurt approx 4 Tblsp
- 60 ml oil, vegetable 1/4 cup
- 60 ml milk 1/4 cup
- 10 ml vanilla extract / 2 tsps or more!
Buttercream
- 250 gm soft unsalted butter 8.8 oz
- 400 gm icing sugar |confectioners 3 cup approx
- 10 ml vanilla extract approx 2 tsp or more
- 1 gm salt 1/4 teaspoon
Sugar Paste Icing
- 500 gm sugar paste (fondant) icing white
- assorted yellow, orange, black, Gel colours
Instructions
- Prepare a tray with 18 to 24 cupcake papers, or aluminium foil containers (18). Depending on the size of your containers or wrappers you will end up with a varying number of cupcakes, 18 to 24. Set the oven temperature to 160C/ 340 F. These cakes can be made with a stand a hand mixer or by hand.
- Put the sugar, vanilla, salt, flour, and baking powder into the bowl of a planetary mixer bowl or a medium bowl and mix to combine
- Now, put the butter into the bowl and mix until all the butter is mixed through. (this is called reverse creaming. It adds butter to dry ingredients coating them before adding eggs and other ingredients. The butter must be soft)
- Put the eggs, oil and sour cream or yoghurt into a bowl and whisk together. Reserve the milk for later. Mix the ingredients until smooth and well combined. Then, scrape down the bowl, and with the mixer on low gradually add the milk. ( if hand mixing follow the same directions)
- Scoop the mixture into the cupcake containers about 2/3 full. Make sure there is a good space at the top. Bake at 160C for 18-20 minutes
Buttercream
- While the cupcakes are cooking and cooling, cut up the butter and leave to come to room temperature.
- Put the butter into a bowl or a stand mixer and beat with the paddle attachment (or hand whisk) until light and fluffy. Add the vanilla and salt and 1 cup of icing sugar at a time. Completely mix in the icing sugar before adding more. Taste and stop when it tastes good for you.
Making the chick faces
- You will need to separate the icing into 4 pieces. The black will be the smallest at around 10 gm. Orange will be about 50 gm. Yellow will need around 300 gm. and about 140 gm
- Colour 300 gm of white icing and set aside wrapped in cling wrap. Colour a very small piece of black icing and set aside wrapped. Next colour the orange piece and set aside. That leaves the white. Wrap and set aside.
- Once the cupcakes are cool, take a knife and cut a little hole in the top of each Get rid of the cake pieces. Fill the hole with vanilla buttercream using a plastic bag or a piping bag and tube.
- Spread a thin layer of buttercream over the cupcakes. Avoid the buttercream going down the sides of the cupcake or onto the papers or containers. Once you have a nice thin layer, don't worry about tidying it up yet. Put the cupcakes into the fridge and chill for 10 minutes. Once they come out it is easy to smooth them over and neaten them up. Set aside
- Roll out the yellow icing and cut circles the size exactly as the top of your cupcake. Put the tops onto the cakes and set them aside. Make little dots in black two for each cake. Pinch off a tiny piece and roll the balls between your fingers. each needs to be the same size so they look even. Next, roll out the orange icing and cut little triangles for the beaks. All that's left now is to roll out the white and create jagged cuts that look like cracked shells. You can also make little feathers by cutting out 3 strips for each side of the cupcake face. Icing can be stuck on with a very very small amount of water. Be cautious with water as it can melt the icing if you use too much.
Notes
My Kitchen Stories received some products from ilovethisshop.com.au to make these cute cupcakes. Cake boxes, gel colours, icing and aluminium baking cups.
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