Royal Icing Easter Egg Cupcakes

I've been trawling the internet trying to find an Easter cupcake decorating idea that doesn't involve tiny Easter Egg topped cupcakes or chicken cupcakes.  I wanted to try something a bit different.

I saw a pin on Pinterest which inspired this idea.  I soon discovered that I didn't have a very steady hand, and didn't like to pay attention to detail, so they were a bit messy, but I still love how they turned out.

I drew my egg template onto baking paper, drawing 20 eggs for 12 cupcakes (allowing for breakages, child disasters etc).

I made up my Royal Icing (I cheat and buy mine in a packet from the supermarket).  I mixed it until peaks appeared, so it was a nice firm consistency for piping.

Flipping my baking paper over, so the drawing was on the opposite side to where I was piping, I then simply piped following the egg design, and decorated them using various colours.  I left them to dry for two days before attempting to use them on the cupcakes.  Its a good idea for the 'stick' part of the design to be quite thick to help avoid snapping while placing them in the cupcakes.

I baked a simple Vanilla cupcake, adding a Mini Creme Egg in each centre before baking, and iced with a Cream Cheese Icing.  Using a kebab stick, I made holes in the cakes first before inserting my Royal Icing Eggs.

This is what happens when you leave a 2 year old unattended with a cupcake (thats my white photography background its squished on) ... I've no idea what she was thinking.  I would of eaten it.