Cupcakes and Crown Royal

The Easter Bunny has arrived...
... and he brought cupcakes!
I'm a legal adult and the youngest in my whole family, so Easter is no longer about chocolate bunnies and colored eggs. In fact, it's about bacon and Crown Royal (for breakfast!). What better cupcake to accompany our Easter brunch than a carrot cake... and Boy! They were GOOOD. Before we get into the cupcakes themselves, I'll back up and explain why we booze up on Easter morning. My dear Uncle Don, whose family is from Czechoslovakia (I think?) brought us his tradition of Speck/Schpek/Shpeck.. shoot. It's a delightful meal which is so sinful that we probably would die if we ate it more than once a year. It's a simple process:
1. Make bacon, save grease.
2. Make more bacon, save more grease.
3. Think you have enough bacon? Make more.
4. Yes, keep the grease.
5. Light your grill and open up a big, crusty loaf of sourdough bread.
6. Bread? Where? The Grill? YES.
7. Just put the bread on the grill? HELL NO. You must brush your bread with bacon grease first!
8. Grill your bread- not for too long, though! Make sure both sides are fully covered in bacon grease.
9. Chop up some raw vidalia onions and put your salt on the table. Don't ask any questions.
10. Pour a glass of Crown Royal for everyone there. Make the glass extra tall for your Dad and Uncle.
11. Assemble Speck.

Place a piece of grilled sourdough on your plate, then add your raw onion (don't be shy! The Crown will mask the onion smell), add bacon, add more bacon, salt heavily. Follow with Crown Royal!

Let's move on to the cupcakes! Carrot Cake with traditional Cream Cheese frosting, rolled in chopped walnuts and accented with modeling chocolate carrots and bunnies :) They're precious and delicious. My new go-to Carrot Cake recipe is adapted from AllRecipe's Sam's Famous Carrot Cake. I also topped with Cream Cheese Frosting (lot's of cream cheese flavor.. only 2 cups of powdered sugar in this one!)

They were delicious, and the more perverse members of my family really enjoyed eating the heads of the modeling chocolate bunnies. All in all, it was an overwhelmingly successful and fun holiday with awesome cupcakes! What more can I ask for?

Oh, yeah. I can ask for good health. <sigh> On a side note, I've had two severe episodes in the last few days, one of which ended in a trip to the ER. I'm heading up to the Mayo Clinic in Jacksonville next month, hopefully they'll have some better treatment ideas.
Until then, I'm sticking to the best medicine: CUPCAKES! :)

Spring has Sprung (Part 2)

Remember when I said I'd find my digital camera? I did. I charged it, and I took pictures of the Easter cupcakes that I had left. Here's the thing... either the Dysautonomia or one of the medicines make my hands shake likes it's nobody's business, so accomplishing a clear, beautiful picture like some of these other blogs might not happen. I guess that's what makes Cupcakes on Bedrest so special :)

To elaborate on the construction, the chicks' heads are a marshmallow- the cream cheese buttercream was piped over it and the rest of the cake. I also tried to pipe up little "tails" on the cuppies too, I think it's more apparent in person. The eyes, beaks, and cheeks on the bunnies are a gumpaste/modeling chocolate blend. I was really happy with the consistency these dried to. Yes, they were a pain in the ass to make. The bunny ears are also marshmallows with food-safe pink gel painted inside, with some shimmery sprinkles for fun :) The bunnies are covered in shredded coconut. The nests are all buttercream, colored and piped, with Cadbury Eggs.

... drumroll, please.