Easter Lamb Carrot Cupcakes Recipe 435

Steps:

• Preheat oven to 350°F. Place 16 cupcake liners in a cupcake or muffin tin and set aside. Sift together flour, baking soda, cinnamon and ginger and set aside. In a large bowl whisk together eggs and vegetable oil until well blended. Add sugar, salt and vanilla and mix well. Add carrots, pineapple and nuts and combine well. Stir in flour mixture. Scoop into the paper cups about 2/3 full. (Depending on the size of cups you may be able to make more.) Place in oven and bake until center of the cupcakes bounce back when lightly pressed with a finger or an inserted toothpick comes out clean, about 23 minutes. Allow to cool before frosting. Prepare cream cheese frosting: Mix cream cheese and soft butter on low speed until blended. Add one cup powdered sugar and mix on low speed. Gradually add remaining powdered sugar and mix on low to medium speed until light and fluffy. (NOTE: Cream cheese frosting which is mixed on high speed will become runny and too soft.) Add vanilla and mix well. Set aside covered in refrigerator. Place coconut in a bowl and add one drop of green food color, mix by (gloved) hand until color is well distributed. (Add a touch of yellow if green color is too harsh.) Fill a piping bag or food storage bag fitted with a medium round decorating tip with cream cheese frosting. Prepare 2 small paper piping bags, set aside and prepare royal icing. (Our royal icing recipe will result in more than you need for just these cupcakes, so divide all ingredients in half when preparing so you won't have as much extra icing left over.) Fill a piping bag with white royal icing. Take about 3 tablespoons white royal icing, make it black and fill into piping bag. Set aside. Using cream cheese frosting pipe a generous circle of frosting onto a cupcake. Cut a large marshmallow crosswise in half. Lay one and a half large marshmallows horizontally onto the cupcake. Pipe a thin layer of cream cheese frosting onto the marshmallows. Starting at the bottom surround the large marshmallows with miniature marshmallows. Pipe a little cream cheese frosting onto the first layer of mini marshmallow and stack another layer of mini marshmallows. Continue until completely covered. Press green coconut onto the edges of cupcake. Position cupcake so that circle side of large marshmallow faces you. For head: Place a hard caramel onto the top edge of large marshmallow and ensure that it is resting onto miniature marshmallows. (You may have to remove some small marshmallows to make it fit.) For ears: Cut a pink jelly bean lengthwise in half. Pinch beans to make pointy. Place next to the head and use a little cream cheese frosting to make them stick. Cut both sides of black jelly beans to create feet. Cut a black jelly bean lengthwise in 4 to create a tail. Using white royal icing pipe eyes, followed by black. Pipe with black royal icing for the nostrils.

Steps:

• Frost each cupcake with an even layer of frosting using a spatula or a palette knife.
• Use a skewer to poke 2 holes in the top end of each marshmallow half for the ears. Poke 2 holes at the bottom of the front side for each of the nostrils.
• Cut the black licorice laces into short lengths: 24 small pieces for the nostrils and thirty-six 1/3-inch lengths for the ears and tails. Stick the shorter licorice pieces into the marshmallows where you've poked holes for the nostrils. Stick 24 of the longer pieces into the marshmallows where you've poked holes for the ears. Attach 1 marshmallow head to each cupcake.
• Cover the cupcakes with mini marshmallows, sticking them to the frosting flat-side down. Leave space on the opposite side of the head to attach the tail. Poke a hole there using a skewer, then stick in the remaining licorice pieces for the tails.
• Spread the backs of two candy eyeballs with a bit of frosting. Attach to the marshmallow, positioning above the nose. Repeat with remaining eyeballs.