Easter Egg Cupcakes

1. Take the egg with the point facing upward, take the end of a steak knife and prick the top of the egg making a small hole. With your fingers, begin to remove some of the shell leaving a small hole for you to insert the cupcake batter. You don’t want the holes too big. Once you have the hole in the top of the egg, begin to pour some the contents out of the egg, placing the contents in a separate bowl. Place the punctured egg shells in a separate bowl. Repeat this process for the remaining eight eggs.

2. Now that the hard part is done, take a large bowl and fill it with warm water and salt. Make sure that the salt has dissolved in the water. Sink your egg shells into the water making sure that the inside of the eggs are filled with the salty water. Allow to soak for 35 minutes.

3. Once the eggs are finished soaking, pour out the water and empty the eggs of any excess water and place them back in the egg carton or on a paper towel to dry. If you are going to put them back in the egg carton, make sure that the opening is pointed down so it can dry internally. If you would like, once the eggs are dry you can begin to dye them. If you choose to dye your eggs, make sure they are completely dry before adding the cupcake batter. Dye the egg shells according to package instructions.

4. Now that the eggs are prepped, let’s make the cupcake batter. Preheat oven to 350 F. In a medium bowl, add the butter, egg and sugar and beat until creamy with a mixer. Begin to add the remaining dry ingredients, extract and milk. Beat until all ingredients are blended well.

5. Take a 12-count cupcake pan and insert a square piece of foil inside each cupcake lining. This will give the eggs more stability so they can bake evenly. Place the egg shells securely inside each cupcake lining using the foil to secure its place in the pan. Into an icing bag, piping bag or cupcake spout, add the cupcake batter. If you do not have one of those, take a Ziploc bag, pour in the cupcake batter, close the bag, and make a hole at the end of one of the corners of the bag and use that to pipe the cupcake batter. Begin to pipe the batter into the egg shells, making sure that there is an even amount of batter in each of the 9 shells. Bake for 25-30 minutes.

6. Once finished baking, remove them from the oven and allow them to cool. You may ice or decorate the cupcakes however you would like. The point is to enjoy! You can bake them and allow the kids to decorate them however they wish!