Cracked Easter Egg Cupcakes

Remember those times as a kid when the year seemed to take forever to get through? Especially once Christmas passed, that period of waiting until Spring Break (which was of course the marking point that summer was just around the corner) seemed to drag on and on…

No one tells you that as you get older that time tends to fly by so quickly. Or maybe our parents did warn us. In fact, now that I think about it, I remember getting the “Don’t grow up too fast” lecture often that I never really paid much attention to but now wish I did. Time now tends to seep through my fingers and I find that instead of fast-forwarding life, I want to rewind it  because I forgot what happened a mere week ago that I’d like to get back.

So it comes as no surprise that this Easter has completely caught me off-guard and I’m a little bummed that I haven’t had any time to get into the Easter-season mood (except when I am walking down the candy aisles of CVS). So I needed to do something asap to get me prepared, even if it just for the day…

These cupcakes are just the trick!

Yellow Cupcakes Recipe

Gluten, egg, and dairy-free

Makes 12 cupcakes

INGREDIENTS

Dry ingredients:

• 1 1/2 c. Cara’s Gluten-Free Flour Blend
• 2/3 c. sugar
• 1 tsp xanthan
• 3/4 tsp baking powder
• 3/4 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/8 tsp turmeric (to give a nice yellow color)

Wet ingredients:

• 3/4 c. non-dairy milk (I used unsweetened almond milk)
• 1/2 c. oil
• 2 1/2 Tb apple cider vinegar
• 1/2 tsp vanilla extract

DIRECTIONS

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
2. Grease a muffin tin or line with cupcake liners.
3. Whisk together the dry ingredients in a medium bowl.
4. Whisk together the wet ingredients in a small bowl and pour into the dry ingredients. Stir until just combined.
5. Pour into muffin tin pan.
6. Bake for 25-27 minutes or until baked through. Allow to cool in pan.

For Icing:

• 4 c. powdered sugar
• 1/2 c. shortening
• 4 Tb non-dairy milk
• 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
• yellow food coloring (or turmeric) for the yolks

1. Beat sugar and shortening together until just combined.
2. Add non-dairy milk and vanilla. Beat until smooth.
3. Set aside 1/4 c. of the mixture and add food coloring.
4. Spoon white icing onto cupcakes and smooth with the back of the spoon.
5. Scoop 2 tsp or so of the yellow icing ontop and gently smooth with the back of the spoon.
6. Top with dark chocolate that has been melted and set in a chocolate egg-shaped half mold. No need to be perfect here! The messier the egg chocolate comes out the better. You want them to look like they have been cracked.