Happy Easter, Hello Spring!

(beautiful springy artwork used courtesy of sparkette, Rhonna)

Hello Spark Lovelies!

Alisa here, to share some springtime love!

I really love spring.

The sun shines brightly, the air is fresh and crisp, and the blossoms bloom simple joy. It makes me want to adorn flowy long dresses, display vibrant bouquets of tulips throughout my home, fly a kite, and even swoon over teeny tiny baby animals with my babies (and I am soooo not an animal person!)

Easter has a way of officially ushering in Spring for me. I look forward to the personal religious significance Easter holds for my family, as well as the fun, traditional, memory-making activities and the comestibles. Every year we have several Easter egg hunts, most unique being a color coded egg hunt at nighttime with flashlights! It is also the one time of year I get to eat my beloved honey baked ham accompanied with cheesy potatoes, homemade rolls, salami wrapped asparagus, and cream cheese jellos, to just name a few. Yum yum yuuuuuum!

One thing that my five-year-old daughter, Bo, and I just happened to do a couple of years ago was make Easter cupcakes and cakes. It was so delightful, it has now become a mommy/daughter tradition. We adore baked goods in general, but there is something extra special about making our Easter ones together!

Today I am going to share 3 springy things with you...

1) a favorite cupcake recipe
(which so easterly includes carrots!)

2) some pretty minis I made to share
(bo and I love miniature things)

3) some collected Easter DIYs
(we will pick and choose to create at our house this week.)

Ready?
Let's go...

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CARROT AND GINGER CUPCAKES
WITH SPICED CREAM CHEESE FROSTING

What you need:

1 pkg. (16 oz.) pound cake of yellow butter cake mix

3/4 cup shredded carrots

1 Tbsp. ground ginger

1 tsp. ground cinnamon, divided

1 pkg. (8 oz.) Cream Cheese, softened

2 cups thawed Whipped Topping

enough powdered sugar for desired sweetness

1/2 cup Walnut Pieces, toasted (optional)

How to make it:

PREHEAT oven to 350°F. Prepare cake batter as directed on package; stir in carrots, ginger, 3/4 tsp. of the cinnamon and walnuts (optional).

SPOON batter into 24 paper-lined medium muffin cups. Bake 15 min. or until toothpick comes out clean. (if you are using a cupcake maker like I do, cook each batch for 7 minutes...adapt to you machine of course...)

BEAT cream cheese in medium bowl with wire whisk until smooth. Gently stir in whipped topping. Add powdered sugar to taste. Spread over tops of cupcakes. Sprinkle with reserved 1/4 tsp. cinnamon. Refrigerate until ready to serve.

(recipe adapted from here)

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ITTY BITTY CAKE BUNTING &
SPRING CUPCAKE TOPPERS

(cake photo borrowed from a favorite recipe here, with bunting digitally added by me...I photographed my cake and immediately began to eat it before I realized I forgot to top it with strawberries! Looks muuuuch better with the pretty strawberries...oops!  ha!)

Here are the freebie downloads I made for you to print and use to accessorize your Easter/Spring delectable...

++a simple mini cake bunting AND simple mini flags++

(click on photo to enlarge, then right click to save and print)

Oh and I sure wish I could say I invented the alternative to the pricey and beautiful laser cut cupcake holders (seen in the above photo), but I didn't. For the price of dollar store doilies your cupcake delivery can go from standard to wow (trust me, it impresses them every time;) click here to learn how!

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EASTER DIY ROUNDUP


Below are some of my favorite Easter ideas I've found floating around the world wide web...Click on the photo to link to the fabulous tutorials!

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May your Easter weekend be filled with family, friends, love, laughter, good food, and lasting memories.


Please use and love our freebie downloads and be sure to post a photo to the Spark Yahoo Group so we can all swoon over and praise your happy creations!

xoxox,

alisa

Read more about my organized chaos here: +MyConcreteSky