Jan Norris: Food and Florida

Holidays bring out the creativity in cooks, and Easter is no exception

Check out these cute ideas for dolling up the deviled eggs and putting a hop into the Easter coconut-grass or carrot cupcakes.

Gone viral - this batch of eggs from mylittlechickencoop.com

Use olive bits for the eyes and a carrot snip for the nose.

Owl chicks from Susan, of Savoring Time in the Kitchen blog.

Cute owl chicks – with carrot feet and green olive eyes. Warning: ripe olive eyes cause them to look like aliens…

These require only half the egg white use, so you get more for your effort. From foodwhine.com

Pimento or carrot bits can be used for feet and beaks.

Mama hen included in this batch of bitties. Cut the white to a jagged edge.

I cannot recall where I pulled this photo above, but I like its pristine way with the chicks and including the mama hen in the group, too. Again, pimentos or carrots for the beaks and tiny black olive spots for eyes. (If you created this, please let me know and I’ll credit you!)

Debbie Moose, the Girl on the Grill columnist for JanNorris.com, wrote the book on deviling eggs – Deviled Eggs: 50 Recipes from Simple to Sassy. Find a couple of recipes from her on my blog.

 Bunny Butt Cupcakes

Now, equal time for the bunnies.

Mostly done with frosting - simple to make.

Start with frosting (I’d make it green just to replicate grass, or make it dirt-like with cookie crumbs.

Green icing grass makes these cute in a group. From whiskthis.com

Cute, with the jellybeans and green and black icing for the tops of the cupcakes.

Another easy one - with a cookie for the bunny body. from sweetpeabaking.com

Carrot cakes make sensible and delicious cupcakes under all these things.

Coconut-covered marshmallows make the feet. /from dogdogmoose-blogspot.com

Chocolate chips, and a chocolate-cookie crumb mixture spread on top of the chocolate frosting make these a chocolate-lover’s friend. From dogdogmoose.blogspot.com

Don’t forget the original bunny face cake

I wrote about making this cake, and ones like it – favorites of the Easter cooks in the ’50s and ’60s. It was printed on the coconut package long years ago and in magazines, as well. It’s still my favorite.