Bird's Nest Banana Cupcakes with Chocolate Buttercream Frosting

Oh, hello again friends. If you celebrate Easter, what did you do today? Spend time with family? Enjoy the sunshine? Eat good food? Spend time in the sunshine with your amazing family while eating good food? That's what I did.

I also started the day off with obscene amounts of matzo brei because, hey, I have one parent who is Jewish and one who is Catholic and my taste buds don't discriminate. I swear I'm not eating again until Thanksgiving.

yummm

You know what else I did today? Spend absurd amounts of time playing Draw Something.

I had been under the impression that Words with Friends and Draw Something only worked on Iphones. False.  I mean, this is just way too much fun. Seriously. Too. Much. Fun. This article was never more timely.

Anywho, I did take some time off from finding creative ways to draw (among other things) a cyclops, a tomato, an apron, and vomit to share these Bird's Nest cupcakes with my family. The banana cupcake recipe is from Baked, while the buttercream and topping situation is courtesy of yours truly. These guys take a little while to prepare if you are doing everything from scratch but you can try to shorten the time needed by buying premade icing and pre-toasted coconut.

I must say, the cupcake recipe was fantastic, and the finished product is adorable. I will definitely be making these again.

Bird's Nest Banana Cupcakes with Chocolate Buttercream Frosting

Ingredients:

• 2¾ cups all-purpose flour
• 1¼ teaspoons baking powder
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• ½ teaspoon salt
• ½ cup (4 ounces) unsalted butter, at room temperature
• ¼ cup vegetable shortening, at room temperature
• 1¾ cups granulated sugar
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 2 eggs
• 1½ cups mashed very ripe bananas (about 4 bananas)
• ½ cup buttermilk
• 1 batch of chocolate buttercream frosting (see below)
• 1 bag of shredded coconut
• 1 bag of candy eggs

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees. Line two 12-cup cupcake pans with paper liners.

Sift together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt and set aside.

Beat the butter and shortening together until creamy. Add the sugar and vanilla and continue beating until fluffy. Add the eggs and beat until just combined. Add the bananas and beat until just combined. Then add the flour mixture, alternating with the buttermilk, in three additions, beginning and ending with the flour mixture.

Fill the cupcake tins about three-quarters full.

Bake for 20 to 25 minutes, rotating the pans halfway through the baking time, until a toothpick inserted in the center of a cupcake comes out clean. Transfer the pans to a wire rack and let cool for 20 minutes. Remove the cupcakes from the pans and place them on the rack to cool completely.

For the chocolate buttercream:

Mix 2 sticks of butter (room temperature), 1/2 cup of cocoa powder, 3 cups of powedered sugar, 2 teaspoons of vanilla extract, 1/2 teaspoon of salt, and 4 tablespoons of heavy cream or half and half until creamy and soft.

For the coconut:

Spread shredded coconut on a baking sheet and bake in the oven at 350 degrees for about 10 minutes, until browned. You may want to stir the coconut around once or twice during baking to make sure it browns evenly.

It will go from this:

To this:

Now, on to the decorating!

Spread each cupcake with icing.

Using your fingers, press coconut around the edge of the cupcake, leaving a space in the center clean. Place 2 or 3 candy eggs in the center.

So, so cute. And tasty. Success!