These Easter cupcakes are the perfect way to celebrate this spring. Fluffy, tender vanilla cupcakes topped with a vanilla cream cheese frosting and toasted coconut. What’s not to love?!
Robins Egg Easter Cupcakes
Spring is truly one of the sweetest times of year. Especially here in Alabama, the air starts to feel more crisp and cool in the mornings and evenings, and I get my fix of hot air in the afternoons. I’m definitely not much of a winter person — I joke that my perfectly ideal situation would be to live in the desert lol. I don’t like the cold, I don’t like the rain, and I definitely don’t like bugs. The desert has none of those things – it’s hot, dry, and there’s not usually too many bugs. But Alabama, despite the bugs, checks all of my boxes so I don’t think we’ll be going anywhere. I can put up with the bugs in the summer if it means there’s only about 2 months of winter.
All that to say, I love when spring rolls around, and Easter is always such a special, beautiful holiday. We get to celebrate our Risen Savior with remembrance, time with family, beautiful weather, and of course lots of good food.
I remember the first time I was put in charge of bringing something to the Easter brunch.. I mean… what to bake for an Easter brunch? I hadn’t the slightest clue. But I quickly learned and I wanted to show y’all what I’ll be making this year.
What are Robins Egg Easter Cupcakes?
These cupcakes are a classic favorite – I took my No-Fail Vanilla Cupcake recipe and Easter-fied them. I also added a vanilla cream cheese frosting instead of a Swiss Meringue Buttercream. Because as much as I love SMBC, there’s just something about cream cheese frosting that always keeps me coming back for more.
Here are some other cupcake recipes I love – you can use your favorite recipe for these cupcakes!
- Strawberries and Cream Champagne Cupcakes
- Chocolate Peanut Butter Cupcakes
- Brown Sugar Cupcakes with Salted Caramel Buttercream
Equipment you may need for these cupcakes…
- Stand mixer: this is the one I have and I love it! I’ve had it for years now and I’ve never had any trouble with it. You definitely don’t “need” a stand mixer for this recipe, but it sure does make life a lot easier.
- Muffin tin: this is a need, and probably one of the most-used items in my kitchen. I bake a lot of muffins & cupcakes (you can check them out here and here), so I put mine to good use. I love this one because the light color prevents things from burning.
- Cupcake liners: always good to have on hand 🙂
- Measuring cups/spoons: I’ve been linking these in all of my posts because I love them SO much! They are beautiful and look just like some other expensive ones on the market (but wayyy cheaper).
- Mixing bowls: I love these glass mixing bowls from Amazon. They’re especially perfect for food photography.
Ingredients for Easter Cupcakes
- Unsalted butter
- Vegetable oil
- Granulated sugar
- Egg whites
- Pure vanilla extract– you’re welcome to substitute the extract with vanilla bean paste, it’s a 1:1 ratio!
- All-purpose flour – all of my recipes are tested using King Arthur flours, so I recommend you use the same!
- Kosher salt – I use Diamond crystal kosher salt always.
- Baking powder
- Sour cream
- Whole milk
- Cream cheese
- Powdered sugar
My Kitchen Tips
Here are a few things that will guarantee the best Easter cupcakes ever:
- Use room temperature ingredients. This is across the board for the whole recipe. It’s so important both with cupcake batter and when making a buttercream–room temperature ingredients are your friends. I like to set my butter and eggs out the night before so I don’t have to deal with getting them down to room temperature before I begin.
- Don’t over-fill the cupcake liners. If you over-fill these cupcakes, your batter will flatten out at the tops, and you won’t have those nice domed tops. I recommend shooting for 2/3-full, as I’ve found that to be the sweet spot for these.
- Top with a tasty buttercream frosting. Let’s be honest, cupcakes are just a vehicle for a delicious frosting. For the cupcakes you see in this blog post I’m using a vanilla cream cheese frosting, but you can use anything from American buttercream to Swiss Meringue Buttercream, to Italian meringue.
How can your kiddos help?
This is such a fun dessert to bake with your kids. I think they’ll love the idea of making their own little birds nest out of edible ingredients! Here are a few things they can do to help:
- Measure the dry ingredients. Time to get messy!! Letting your kids hold a dry measuring cup into a container full of flour is dangerous – I’ll be the first to admit it – but it does make for a really fun time. If you’re not looking for the mess, let them measure the sugar – it won’t be quite as messy.
- Divide the batter into the muffin cups. Have your kids add the cupcake liners to the muffin pan, then let them use a 2 oz scoop to add the batter to each muffin cup. That way there’s less of a mess and they get all the satisfaction!
- Decorate the cupcakes. Once the coconut cools completely, let them pile it onto the cupcakes overtop of the frosting. Fun, easy, and they’ll love playing with the strands of coconut. And don’t forget the Robins Eggs 🙂
How to Store
Store these cupcakes in the refrigerator in an airtight container for 2 to 3 days. When ready to serve, let them sit at room temperature for about 2 hours so the frosting will soften up.
Thank you all in advance for supporting my blog, I am so grateful for each of you. If you make this recipe, be sure to tag me @sarahsdayoff so I can see them!
I hope you all have the happiest, joy-filled Easter this year celebrating our Risen Savior with family and friends. The sacrifice that was made all that time ago on a dark day on a cross sitting atop a hill called Golgotha is something I don’t know that I’ll ever be able to wrap my mind around. But what a joyous day it was 3 days later when He rose from the grave! May we all spend our days rejoicing, worshiping, and praising our King in Heaven seated at the right hand of God. Thank you Jesus!
Love,
Sarah
“For this is how God loved the world: He gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life.” -John 3:16-
Robins Egg Easter Cupcakes
Ingredients
For the Cupcakes
- 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
- 1/2 tsp baking powder
- 1/2 tsp kosher salt
- 1 cup sweetened shredded coconut
- 1/4 cup unsalted butter at room temperature
- 1/4 cup vegetable oil
- 1 cup granulated sugar
- 2 large egg whites at room temperature
- 1 Tbsp pure vanilla extract
- 1/3 cup sour cream at room temperature
- 1/4 cup whole milk at room temperature
- 1 (13-oz) bag Robins Eggs
For the Vanilla Cream Cheese Frosting
- 3/4 cup unsalted butter at room temperature
- 8 oz cream cheese at room temperature
- 5 cups powdered sugar
- 1 1/2 tsp pure vanilla extract
- 1/8 tsp kosher salt
Instructions
For the Cupcakes
- Preheat oven to 350°F. Line a 12-cup muffin tin with cupcake liners. Whisk flour, baking powder, and salt in a bowl; set aside.
- Spread coconut into an even layer on a sheet pan. Bake 10 minutes or until lightly golden brown, stirring halfway between to ensure the coconut bakes evenly.
- Beat butter, oil, and sugar in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment on high speed 2 to 3 minutes or until color turns a pale yellow (use a large bowl and hand mixer or whisk, if you'd like to).
- Beat in egg whites and vanilla.
- Stir sour cream and milk in a liquid measuring cup. Alternately beat in dry ingredients and sour cream mixture (3 additions of dry ingredients, 2 additions of sour cream mixture), starting and ending with the dry ingredients.
- Scrape down the bowl, and beat 30 seconds more on medium speed. Divide batter between muffin cups, filling each about 2/3-full.
- Bake 18 to 22 minutes or until the cupcake springs back when you touch the top or a toothpick inserted into the center of a cupcake comes out clean.
- Cool completely in pan before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely before frosting.
For Vanilla Cream Cheese Frosting*
- Add butter and cream cheese to the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. Beat on high speed until light and fluffy, about 2 to 3 minutes.
- Gradually add powdered sugar, beating until smooth. Add vanilla and salt.
- Top each cooled cupcake with frosting, toasted coconut to make "birds nest," and Robins eggs.
Notes
This blog post contains affiliate links which make me a small commission at no cost to you. Thank you for supporting Sarah’s Day Off!
