Twiggie Makes by Candace Grahl

While I still think fall will trump any of the seasons (for me), spring still holds a soft spot in my heart. New season, new beginnings and everything is alive again. While I love the season itself, I usually opt out of Easter-type crafts since they tend to be a little too much on the cutesy side. However when I stumbled across this idea from Duncan Hines I scribbled down all the ingredients onto my shopping list and resolved that no matter how cutesy I just had to do them. So cute!! And so much fun, I might add. The best part? No-bake cookies - those are cut and decorated graham crackers you see. When I tweeted I was doing this, I got a few people asking how can you cut a graham cracker without breaking the whole thing? I thought the same thing but I am here to tell you that it can be done! Just be gentle and don’t use low-fat grahams (they’re harder to cut than the regular version). So if you’re interested in tackling some of these super-cute treats, I’ve outlined all the steps I took below. Please let me know if you give them a try!!

Easter Eggs Cupcakes

Cutting the graham crackers: It really is as easy as it looks. You can use a template or freestyle it. If you do use a template, you can take the tip of your serrated knife and drag it across the surface of the cracker, creating a traceable outline.

Then with gentle pressure begin cutting (or chipping away, really) the cracker.

It took me about 30 minutes to cut an entire box of graham crackers, all while my children ate breakfast. Easy!

Decorating the grahams: The original recipe says to use canned frosting that has been tinted, however that stuff takes forever to dry. And not to mention you make a mess tinting everything. So I picked up some bags of molding candy…

…microwaved them per the instructions on the bag…

…spooned a little onto the cracker…

…and then smoothed it over the surface.

While the candy was still wet I gave Conner some jumbo sprinkles and let him have at it.

Such a handsome assistant I have. Note to self: need to work on his “cheese” face…

And if you’re feeling really adventurous you can nuke some more candy, pour into a small sandwich bag, snip the tip and pipe more designs on the top.

After about a half-hour of decorating and another half-hour of sitting, my eggs were dry. It was so incredibly easy and clean up was a cinch! I will definitely be keeping this idea for the future. Then it was time to ice my cuppies (which I had baked the night before). This is when I say I love making things from scratch. I feel an overwhelming sense of accomplishment and satisfaction baking this way, however. HOWEVER. Sandra Lee is also one of my favorites and if there are short cuts to be had, take them! Especially when you’re putting more effort into one area (cutting grahams into egg-shapes to decorate) and slacking off in another (enter boxed cake mix and canned frosting). Okay, so back to the icing. I tinted it green - which I didn’t have the right shade of green but didn’t have time to run back out so had to make-do with what I had - snipped the end of a freezer bag and slipped a #12 Wilton tip into the end. Then filled the bag with icing and began piping dots…

…and more dots…

…and more dots…

…until you are all set and there is your grass.

Now just place your egg in the center of the iced cuppie and voila! Super cute, easy and fun Easter dessert.

If all of that is too daunting, you can top your cuppies with robin egg candy or buy premade egg-shaped cookies.

Aside from the shade of green that I had to use, I love how they turned out! And they really were so easy and so much fun to do. Can I say that one more time? FUN!!

Have a great weekend and a wonderful Easter!