Eggcellent Easter Cake!

HAPPY EASTER!

Wishing you exciting Easter desserts! 

Eggcellent!

Robin's Egg Cookies

Robin's Egg cookies are a fun project to make during Spring and Easter. Make them with your children or the neighborhood kids on a weekend and enjoy as a treat afterwards, or wrap them up in a goodie bag and pass out on Easter Sunday. A great excuse to bring out one's own talent! I chose to use Royal Icing as it hardens nicely and once dried you can't dent or mess up the look! Take a crack at it!

TOOLS

2 baking sheets

Parchment Paper

Standing Mixer

Measuring cups & spoons

Rubber spatula

Rolling pin

Egg cookie cutter

2 cooling wire racks
Double boiler or microwave for melting chocolate

INGREDIENTS

3 cups all purpose flour

3/4 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp salt

1 cup unsalted butter, softened

1 cup sugar

1 egg, beaten

1 tbsp milk

Powdered sugar, for rolling out dough

DIRECTIONS

Sift together flour, baking powder and salt. Set aside.

In a stand mixer with paddle place butter and sugar and beat until light in color then add egg and milk. 

Put mixer on low speed and gradually add flour and beat until mixture pulls away from the side of the bowl. Divide the dough in half, wrap in waxed paper, and refrigerate for 2 hours. Preheat oven 375 degrees F.

Sprinkle surface where you will roll out dough with powdered sugar. Remove 1 wrapped pack of dough from refrigerator at a time, sprinkle rolling pin with powder, and roll out dough to 1/4" thick. Press egg cookie cutter throughout the dough and place cookie 1" apart on parchment lined or on a silcone baking mat over your cookie sheet. Repeat this till you are out of dough. Bake for 7-9 minutes or until cookies are just beginning to turn brown around the edges, rotating cookie sheet halfway through baking time. 

After 2 minutes out of the oven, transfer cookies to a wire rack to finish cooling.

ROYAL ICING

Wilton's Royal Icing creates a hard-drying, long lasting decoration that has a matte finish. You'll have to work quickly and make sure to close the lid on your glass (not plastic) container if you are going to walk away.  Once it dries it will not smear or leave a dent.

TOOLS

Standing mixer

Glass container with plastic lid for storing royal icing

Small decorating spatula

1 new toothbrush or thin paint brush

Drying cookie rack

INGREDIENTS

1-1/2 tbsp Meringue Powder such as Wilton's found in your local craft store - bakery dept. 

8oz sifted confectioner's sugar

3-5 tbsp lukewarm water

Teal or Turquoise food coloring

1/3 cup chocolate chips

DIRECTIONS

Make sure all utensils are grease free.

Place confectioner's sugar and meringue powder in a bowl. Stir or mix at low speed until blended. Add water and mix 7-10 minutes at low-medium speed until icing loses its sheen. Add a drop of the Teal food coloring untill you get the desired Robin's Egg color. To prevent drying, be sure to cover the bowl with a damp cloth while working with icing. To reuse, beat on low to restore original texture. If the icing is too thick add a teaspoon of water at a time to loosen. 

After cookies have cooled and the royal icing is made, begin spreading the royal icing on each cookie with the small decorating spatula, smoothing it out carefully doing your best to create a nice smooth surface. Let the cookies dry for about an hour on the cooling racks. 

Once the cookies are dry and ready, separately melt the chocolate in a double boiler or microwave very carefully and slowly untill you get a thin melted consistency. With the paint brush slowly make small chocolate dots on the dried royal icing replicating a Robin's Egg. I prefer to use a new toothbrush dipped in chocolate and with your thumb run across the bristles back and forth, this will 'spray' small chocolate drops. You will be happier with the results. Much easier but a bit messy. Your choice!

Cookies can be stored in an airtight container for up to 1 week.  

Makes about 2 dozen 4" x 3" egg cookies.  The egg cookie cutter can be purchased at Sur la Table, William Sonoma or Amazon.com I bought mine at William Sonoma.

Sugar Cookie recipe from Food Network - Alton Brown.

Happy Easter Basket!

Confetti Easter Eggs (Cascarones)

Spring time means Easter Confetti Eggs in our family and a time for eating lots of eggs! When I see all the Easter decorations in the shops a few weeks before that's usually a reminder that I need to start working on the hallowed eggs untill I get about 2 dozen.

The story behind Confetti Eggs or Cascarones is rumored to have originated in China and brought to Europe by Marco Polo. In Italy they were first used as a courting ritual, filled with perfume and then capped with wax. Men would throw them at women they found attractive. The custom then traveled to Spain and was later brought to Mexico in the mid-1800s by Emperor Maximilian’s wife. It was in Mexico that the perfumed powder was replaced with confetti.

In Spanish, cáscara means eggshell. Cascarones are common throughout Latin American and are similar to the Easter eggs popular in many other countries. They are mostly used in Mexico during Carnival, but in US and Mexico border towns the cultures combined making them a popular Easter tradition. While you may see cascarones at the carnival celebrations in the US, it is more common to see them around Easter. This is because, like many other Latin traditions, there has been a merging with the US holiday tradition of dyeing hard boiled eggs. 

Having one broken over your head is said to bring good luck. 

Cascarones are increasingly popular in the Southwestern United States. They are especially prominent during the two-week, city-wide Fiesta festival in San Antonio, TX. I live in CA now, and recently to my surprise saw these sold at my local grocery store, Ralphs! I guess a sign of the tradition migrating westbound.

TOOLS

1 Egg Coloring Kit from your local grocery or craft store

2 dozen hollowed out eggs

Confetti or in my case dollar bills!

1-2 Pastel colored streamer rolls or tissue paper cut into 1.5" squares

Scissors

Glue

Paper towels

2 dozen straws or coffee stirers for holding the eggs to dry

2-3 containers or drinking glasses (to hold your straws eggs for drying)

DIRECTIONS
Making Cascarones, first open the top of an egg. You can use a pin or knife to break a hole on the end of the egg and pour the egg out. You can use the egg to make scrambled eggs or flan if you want. The shell must then be rinsed and cleaned out and let to dry.

Once the eggs have dried decorate them using an egg dye kit, watercolors, markers or paint. Egg coloring kits are available at your local grocery or craft store.

When the paint is dry, fill the inside with confetti, in my case I am using a few dollar bills in place of confetti for my teenage nieces and nephews...shh they don't know this! Lastly apply a small amount of glue around the outside of the egg, hold and cover with tissue or crepe paper. 

Wait until the glue has dried before smacking the cascarone on an unsuspecting person or save them or the egg hunt on Easter Sunday!

Happy Easter Egg Hunting!