Holiday Hunger

There's nothing like celebrating the ultimate sacrifice than by turning it into another reason to over-indulge in rich foods and tons of candy. Because we didn't get enough sugar during Halloween and Valentine's Day. I'm not complaining- I love food.

With each passing holiday, we've been down-sizing and stream-lining (sort of) the process of preparing for a family get-together. The best way to describe it is being more casual but still keeping the traditions alive. We ended up doing brunch and dinner with way too much candy laying around the house in between.

For just the four of us, we had a lot of food for dinner. The SO and I found a honey-glazed spiral cut ham, our family friend (who is like an "adopted" sister to the guys and his the mom to our kitty's recently injured sister) brought over adorable deviled eggs made to look like chicks, and FMIL whipped up a green bean casserole and scalloped potatoes. We had rolls for both meals and I made pastel rainbow cupcakes! I took some photos of that lovely process that I winged after seeing some inspiration online.

 

There's capers for eyes and carrot beaks. The red stuff is a beet and horseradish side dish.

 

The supplies that we got the other night. White batter and pink vanilla frosting. I cut the recipe in half for just a dozen cupcakes. I even managed to get 1.5 egg whites.

 Barely any gel food coloring and I got these beautiful hues perfect for this project. I probably should have mixed them in little baggies to distribute them in more interesting patterns.

 

Starting to add different colors into the different cups. I should have planned this out but I really didn't have a system. It became a mess after this point.

 

A little more than half an hour later and I have these cuties! They retained their coloring remarkably well.

 

I waited to frost them today in between brunch and dinner to kill some time. They are so sweet-looking!

 

After taking the first bite to show the various colors inside. I'm glad I had plain mix and vanilla frosting, it took the edge off of the sweetness that usually comes with these products.

  

A snapshot of our Lily Stargazer.

Many of them started opening today, which we found to be very appropriate.

While the ham took a little too long to heat through, I don't think today could have gone any better in terms of the stress that often comes with the holidays nowadays. We hope that everyone had a wonderful and peaceful weekend and Easter Sunday.