Two weeks to go until the Easter weekend – the countdown is on. Even though it's the depths of winter outside (does that annoy you as much as it does me?), there is growing hope that we will soon have pleasant temperatures for sitting outside again. Because Easter without sunshine and warmth just isn't the same, is it? For everyone with children, of course, but also for those of us without children. It just puts everyone in a better mood!
Whatever lifts your spirits, whether the sun is shining or not, these delightful eggnog cupcakes with chocolate eggs nestled in cream are perfect for the Easter table or as a gift to bring to Easter brunches!
Eierlikör everywhere
I usually advocate using alcohol in baking, regardless of whether children will be eating it or not. This is because it evaporates completely after an average amount of time in the oven. With my eqqnog cupcakes, it's a little different because the cream also contains liqueur, and (fortunately) that doesn't evaporate. If I had found alcohol-filled mini eggs, I would have put them on top, but unfortunately they only come in adult size. On the other hand, let's just go with the big eggs. More is more!
Of course, it tastes best with homemade egg liqueur. You can find my personal liqueur recipe here. But of course, it works just as well with the shop-bought variety. In that case, there's just one thing that's extremely important: buy the really expensive, high-quality egg liqueur! Even in muffins, the cheap stuff tastes awful. When you eat it, it feels like you have a floury coating on your tongue, yuck!
If you need a child-friendly version, simply leave out the liqueur in the cream, and you're done. Then you won't need the gelatine either. Replace all the sugar with vanilla sugar, and it will have a lovely vanilla flavour. The children will love the Easter basket cupcakes (and as mentioned above, the alcohol in the muffins will evaporate in the oven anyway. And if not, at least the little rascals will sleep well that night 🤣).
Friends of decoration – here comes your moment to shine
Who says that only chocolate eggs can be used on cupcakes? How about mini chocolate bunnies? Break off their ears (that sounds a bit mean), fill them with egg liqueur and stick them on top of the egg liqueur cream. Aaaaah, how brilliant! That just occurred to me as I was writing this. I'm going to do that right now.
But of course, you can also jazz up the eggnog cupcakes with sugar eggs, marzipan carrots and any other great decorations you can find. Real flowers are also great for this. Just make sure they are organic.
I hope you enjoy baking these recipes. If you're looking for ideas for your Easter table, why not try my moist carrot cake with lemon icing!
Eggnog cupcakes
Ingredients
Equipment
Method
- Preheat the oven to 180°C top/bottom heat.
- Beat the eggs with icing sugar and vanilla sugar until fluffy.
- Slowly pour in the oil and egg liqueur while stirring so that everything combines well.
- Mix the dry ingredients and fold in.
- Line a muffin tin with muffin cases or place sturdy muffin cases on a baking tray.Fill to about 2/3 full.
- Bake in the oven for approx. 25 minutes (test with a skewer).Let cool.
- Soak the gelatine in cold water.
- For the cream, whip the cream with cream stabiliser until stiff.
- Mix the remaining ingredients with 50 ml of egg liqueur in a bowl until smooth.
- Heat the remaining egg liqueur with the squeezed gelatine in a small saucepan. Stir constantly until the gelatine has completely dissolved.(Caution: When making homemade egg liqueur, the egg will curdle. To dissolve the gelatine, add a little whipped cream).
- Stir the gelatine into the cream while stirring continuously, then fold in the whipped cream.
- Chill the cream for about 20 minutes until it becomes firmer but can still be piped easily.
- Fill a piping bag with the cream and pipe it onto the muffins.
- Decorate as desired.
