Easter ideas: Deviled Easter Eggs and “Peeps” cake

I made these for my family last Easter and they were a big hit!  As long as you (or your guests) aren’t creeped out by colorful deviled eggs, these are an adorable addition to your Easter menu.

Deviled Easter Eggs!

And making them is easy!  It’s standard deviled egg procedure with just a small twist towards the end.

1.  Prepare hard-boiled eggs, peel them, cut them in half and scoop out the yolks (exactly like when you make regular deviled eggs).

2.  Fill several glasses with water (1 glass for every color you want to create) and add 4-5 drops of food coloring to the water. Stir.

3.  Drop the egg white halves into the colored water. As time passes the eggs will slowly begin to change color.  Check on them every few minutes and remove them when they reach a color you are happy with. (The longer they soak the darker they will get.)

4.  Remove the eggs from the water and allow to dry. (They can sit and air dry or you can gently pat them dry with a napkin or paper towel.)

5.  Prepare your deviled egg filling however you normally would.  I’m a bit of a purist when it comes to deviled egg filling: egg yolks, mayo, salt, and pepper.  Grandma taught me that adding a touch of dijon mustard gives the filling a really nice flavor as well so I add that if I happen to have some in the fridge.

6.  Fill your eggs!  Although spooning the filling into your eggs is perfectly acceptable, I was going more for “pretty” than “rustic” with these.  I’m prissy about my delved eggs sometimes and ever since I learned how beautiful piping the filling into the eggs looks, I rarely ever do it any other way.  Piping the filling is actually easier than spoon the filling directly onto the egg and it requires less handling of the eggs (which can be fragile and tear if you aren’t careful).  If you don’t have piping bags and tips, or if you are just feeling lazy like I was, you can use a ziplock bag.  Spoon the filling into a ziplock bag, snip off one of the bottom corners of the bag, and pipe the filling into the eggs that way.  You’d be surprised how many people aren’t hip to this technique and will ask you how your made your eggs look so nice.

I also whipped up this quick and easy “Peeps” cake for dessert:

“Peeps” cake

This is easy-peasy, I promise! Bake a chocolate cake (or other flavor of choice) and frost it with chocolate frosting. I believe I bought 4 packs of Peeps to cover the border of the cake.  The recipe I was using said not to separate the Peeps when you take them out of the package – just curve them as you place them around the cake and they should stay in place thanks to the frosting.  Thennn, take chocolate chips and place them in the middle.  Voilà! It looks like a sunflower, which is adorable for Spring and it’s got Peeps on it, which is a classic Easter icon!

I’m pretty excited to get cooking on Easter Sunday.  My mom and I have already found an adorable cake to make (which I’ll post about later!).  Hooray for holidays that call for a traditional holiday meal! 🙂  I also can’t wait for Lent to be over so I can have finally enjoy some soda again! (In moderation, of course.)  Do you have any great Easter recipes to share?