Easter is almost upon us! Growing up, my mom always assembled the BEST Easter baskets for me and my brother. His would be filled with chocolates and mine would contain all of my favorite fruit-flavored items, plus a stuffed animal or two. My mom used to pull together similar packages for us for Valentine’s Day, too. I miss those, but from time to time, we still get surprise packs by mail. :)

The little spring chickies above make adorable cupcakes. I used Pillsbury’s Orangesicle cake mix for my base and yellow sugar, candy orange slices, white chocolate chips, black icing and lemon icing to craft these creatures. The roomie plans to take some to her family’s holiday get together tomorrow.

The Makings:

• Cake mix – 1 Box
• Eggs – 3
• Canola oil
• Water

For garnish:

• Yellow sugar
• Lemon icing
• Black icing
• White chocolate chips
• Candy orange slices

The Sweetness:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Prepare cake mix as directed on the package.

2. Pour cake mix into lined cupcake molds and bake for approximately 18-22 minutes. Allow cupcakes time to cool.

3. Frost cupcakes with lemon icing. Then roll frosted cupcakes in yellow sugar.

4. Divide each candy orange slice into 3 sections – 1 to make the beak and 2 for the feet. Make 2 small cuts into each of the feet pieces to give a “zig zag” effect. Use a dab of icing to secure feet and beak pieces to base.

5. Place chocolate chips upside down to create eyeballs and a black tube of icing to create pupils. Plop two dollops of lemon icing on sides of cupcakes to make mini wings. (To do this, I used my Cuisinart cookie press and an icing tip.) And that’s it! You’ve now created some super sugary chicken feed. :-P

More Sweetness: