bird's nest cupcakes

Easter comes early this year. I realized that I hadn't done any Easter baking so I decided to remedy that last night with a batch of Bird's Nest Cupcakes. They're delicious, easy to prepare and almost as fun to look at as they are to eat. All that and they give you the perfect excuse to buy the family sized bag of Mini Eggs. What more could you ask for?

Here's the recipe if you want to try them at home.

Bird's Nest Cupcakes

1 French Vanilla cake mix
2-3 C shredded coconut (I used fancy cut, next time I'll buy the long string)
Frosting of choice
Family sized bag of Cadbury's Mini Eggs

Heat the oven to 350. Spread the coconut evenly over a cookie sheet with sides. You'll need to toast more than you'll use because it needs to be deep enough to dredge the cakes. I used all of a small bag, about 2-3C.

Toast the coconut for approx 7 min, but keep an eye on it, it turns quickly. Also, you'll notice that the coconut around the edges of the pan browns much faster than the rest. Every 2 minutes or so, stir the browned coconut into the middle of the pan. Keep a close eye on it.

Prepare cake mix according to package directions. Portion into pans and bake as directed (your oven should already be to temp :)

Once cooled, spread a cake with a generous layer of frosting. Dredge in coconut. I found I had to pack on a little coconut afterwards to get good coverage. Once covered, take the end of a spoon and push the frosting/coconut out of the middle of the cupcakes towards the sides. This will create the sides of the nest and importantly, will keep the mini eggs from falling off. I scraped the frosting right down to the cake to form a little well about a centimeter across.

Place a few mini eggs into the nest. I found that 5 or 6 eggs per cake worked best. Repeat.
Enjoy! Happy Easter!