In terms of food, Easter is traditionally all about eggs, ham, and candy. This Sunday vary your spread of sweets with some cookies, bars, cakes, pies, etc. Food bloggers near and far have designed some incredible Easter-themed baked goods, and I've picked my five favorites.
5. Peanut Butter Gooey Easter Bars. Gooey is a funny word. It's a positive descriptor when applied to food, but in most other realms comes off pejoratively; for example, "that wound is so gooey" and "there's some sort of gooey film covering the bottom of my bookshelf." Anyway, I digress. These bars offers a divinely rich flavor thanks to the inclusion of peanut butter M&Ms in addition to peanut butter proper and mellifluous interior created by the inclusion of sweetened condensed milk.
4. Coming Up Carrots Cupcakes. So named because they look like carrots emerging from soil, these cupcakes have a moist cocoa base of devil's food cake and a crown of mascarpone cheese frosting dusted with crushed Oreos. And on Easter, each cupcake counts as one serving of vegetables.
3. Carrot Cake Cookie Sandwiches. Iced sugar cookies are a dime a dozen around Easter, so for a change of pace I suggest making carrot cake cookies, then melding them together in pairs via some cream cheese frosting. Their autumnal spices give your palate a refreshing break from other chocolate-heavy confections, and their grainy, nutty texture makes them more filling, so you're less likely to eat more than three.
2. Coconut Easter Egg Nest Cupcakes. There are many, many -- all slightly different -- versions of this recipe on the web, but I like this one because of its use of coconut extract in the icing as well as the batter. For an additional dimension of realism ('cause, ya know, I'm sure many people will mistake these cupcakes for actual birds' nests) dye the shredded coconut green using food coloring.
1. Cadbury Creme Egg Brownies. More butter and less flour makes these brownies extremely dense and rich, but the inclusion of entire Cadbury eggs in the batter exponentially increases the chocolate "gooey" factor. You will need a frosty glass of milk and a fork to eat these brownies, especially if you want to eat them out of the pan.