Tie-Dye Easter Egg Cupcakes

This cold weather just won't quit! It's been awhile since I've posted because things have been very busy at work and the weather is keeping us from enjoying Spring. But not today! We stayed warm and cozy in the house and decided to finally use the Duff cake mix that was included in our Disney Side kit. Instead of making traditional cupcakes, we chose to make Easter egg cupcakes in honor of the upcoming holiday.

We only had nine eggs in the fridge, so we used those to experiment with the eggshell technique and made normal cupcakes with the remaining batter. I started by poking a tiny hole in the end of a raw egg. I used a very sharp tool made for poking tiny holes in pumpkins:

Small hole

 I then peeled and carefully pried away the shell to make a hold big enough for a pipette tip to fit in.

It looks like a pretty big hole, but it's only slightly larger than a dime.

 I then let all the goo run out of the egg and into a bowl. Three of the eggs I saved for the cake, while the other ones are in separate bowl that was put in the fridge for later.

Goooooey goo

The eggs then went for a nice long salt-water bath, about 30 minutes. Then they were carefully rinsed off and set to dry on a paper towel (hole facing down).

 

While they were drying, I followed the directions on the Duff box and enlisted the help of my husband and boys to mix up the colors.

Love the Duff!

 

I made little foil nests inside of my cupcake tin to hold the eggs in place.

 

Next I carefully used a piping bag to squeeze a little bit of each color, layer by layer, into the egg, until the eggs were a little over half full. I regret not taking a picture of this step!

Ready to go in the oven.

Finally I popped them in a pre-heated oven @350 degrees for 20 minutes and used the same technique to make some cupcakes with the leftover batter.

Pre-oven

Post-oven

 Oh no! Since this was my first time doing this, I must have overfilled the eggs and the mix overflowed! No biggie though, I just scraped off the excess and they were good to go.

The cupcakes came out well too!

Inside of the cupcake

Looks like a normal egg on the outside.....

But peel away the shell.....

And voila! Cupcake!

Now that I know it works, I can't wait to experiment with other variations. You can dye the eggshells to look just like Easter eggs, you can use white cake mix and then inject lemon curd to represent yolks, use pastel colored cake mix, or whatever you want! I think I'm going to attempt the white mix with lemon curd for Easter dinner. 

Disney Side @ Home Celebration 2015

Our party was a success! Sure we had some setbacks, such as no cupcakes, a whittled down guest list due to rescheduling, and some other minor issues, but overall we had a fantastic time and we enjoyed watching our friends and family embrace their #DisneySide! We played games, ate great food, talked about our favorite Disney parks/rides/characters, helped plan trips, and laughed until our sides hurt.  If you would like to show off your Disney Side visit http://disneysidecelebrations.com/ for some great ideas on having a party of your own, or ideas for showing off your Disney Side any time of the year! For more information on Disney Parks or to start planning a trip of your own, please visit https://disneyworld.disney.go.com/
 
 I received a complimentary party kit to host this party and all opinions listed are my own.
Some of the promotional items in my kit included:

Wilton Mickey Head Cake Pan

Twining Tea

All might pacs laundry pods

Whisk detergent

Snuggle Scent Boosters

Duff Tie Dye Cake Mix

HP Printer Paper

Photos from our event:

Our Living Room, AKA Radiator Springs

 

Pin the mouth on the Mickey:

 

 

Product Reviews March 2015

Lots of reviews coming this month. You can check out the full reviews on my review page here. The complimentary products I have received so far are:

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#DisneySide 2015 was a success!

We were finally able to have our Disney Side celebration this past weekend. I will update with pictures as soon as I can!

Winter Blues

While the bad weather has given me plenty of time to decorate and create, it also caused us to have to cancel our Disney Side party. There is nothing worse than a fully decorated house that's empty. Luckily some friends braved the snow covered roads and ate king cake with us. We had a great time and we have rescheduled our party for this Saturday. I am trying my best to get back into party mode, but this weather is making it very hard :(  I am focusing on our upcoming Disney trip and I started packing to try to get my spirits up.

Radiator Springs Sign

The only good thing about this horrible weather is that I have been stuck in the house for days and, therefore, have had tons of time to get my #DisneySide on! One of the projects I have been working on is a Radiator Springs sign. I got my inspiration from this photo of a sign at Disneyland's Cars Land:

I started with a large cardboard box that I cut into a rectangle. I then began the faux wood treatment on it as follows:

1. Lightly spray black spray paint all over the surface in random patterns

2. Next use a small paint tray and add water to where the paint normally goes. Then squeeze a small amount of white paint on the ramp of the tray. Dip the brush in the paint and then in the water. Brush off the excess water on the ramp of the tray until the brush is no longer dripping.

3. Paint stripes of white across your cardboard in the directions you want your wood "boards" to go. 4. Repeat the water down and painting process with brown paint. 

5. Use black paint to paint lines, creating boards. You can also use black paint to create knots and other imperfections in the "wood". 

6. I printed out my letters and then painted over them, but feel free to freestyle paint them for a more realistic look. 

7.  I found a great photo of Route 66 online, printed it, and glued it to a cardboard backing. I then used cardboard and posterboard to create a sign post and attached it to both of my signs.

Finished product: 

Getting the party started...More #DisneySide fun

Getting some more decorating done for our party :) This is so much fun!

Mardi Gras Mickey

I am separating the Mardi Gras and Disney Cars theme by creating a Cozy Cone Entrance into our living room, aka Radiator Springs. I originally planned on using cardboard and cutting an entrance in the middle, but it would only allow for kids to enter and not the adults. I brainstormed a bit and came up with this idea.  I started with a piece of paper ribbon and made a triangle frame in the doorway from which to hang the orange crepe paper.

Then I stapled the crepe paper to the paper ribbon. I cut the crepe paper right above the floor line, but will probably cut it a bit shorter when  I complete it. 

 

For the background I was lucky enough to have saved a Radiator Springs background from a Cars wall set we had when Eli was a toddler. It ended up working out perfectly for this project, but you could substitute this background with a blue plastic tablecloth with painted clouds or whatever you choose.

Almost finished product. I went through four rolls of crepe paper and a box of staples. I need to run to the store tomorrow to replenish my supplies.

I also need to get supplies to make the sign:

Tomorrow, hopefully, I will have supplies, finish this project, and start on my Radiator Springs faux wood sign.