Easter Basket Pull-Apart Cake

SUPPLIES & TOOLS:

• Royal Blue Candy Melts® Candy*
• Bright Pink Candy Melts Candy*
• Bright White Candy Melts Candy*
• Red Candy Melts Candy*
• Yellow Candy Melts Candy*
• Orange Candy Melts Candy*
• Turquoise Candy Melts Candy
• Favorite cake mix or recipe
• Creamy White Decorator Icing - 4lb Tub
• Violet Icing Color**
• Royal Blue Icing Color**
• Rose Icing Color**
• Teal Icing Color**
• Kelly Green Icing Color**
• Cornflower Blue Icing Color
• Bunny & Egg Sprinkles
• Parchment Triangles
• Scissors
• Silicone Candy Egg Mold
• Disposable decorating bags
• Standard 12-Cup muffin pan
• Easter Wishes standard cupcake liners
• Cooling Grid
• Star Decorating Tip 32 (4 needed)
• Specialty Decorating Tip 233
• 9" angled spatula
• Ruler

DIRECTIONS:

1. Makes about 24 cupcakes.
2. Melt candy for eggs. Combine candies as directed to get about 1/4 cup of light lavender, dark lavender, medium peach and rose candy. Melt candy according to package directions.
3. Additionally melt 1/4 cup Turquoise and Bright White candy, separately, according to package directions. Add small amount of melted Bright White candy to melted Turquoise candy to make light turquoise. Reserve remaining melted Bright White candy.
4. Make candy eggs. Prepare five parchment bags; fill separately with melted light lavender, dark lavender, medium peach, rose and light turquoise candy. Cut very small tip off end of each bag.
5. Using parchment bags, fill decorative indents in egg mold. Chill until set, about 5 to 10 minutes.
6. Prepare decorating bag with remaining melted Bright White candy. Cut ¼ in. off end of bag. Fill each cavity to top of mold. Chill until set, about 25 to 30 minutes.
7. Remove from mold and set aside.
8. Bake cupcakes. Prepare cupcake batter following recipe instructions. Bake and cool 24 cupcakes in Easter cupcake liners.
9. Tint icing. Tint 1 cup icing each light lilac, light lavender, and light turquoise using color combinations provided.
10. Using Cornflower Blue icing color, tint 1 cup icing cornflower blue. _x000B_Reserve remaining icing white._x000B_Prepare four decorating bags with tip 32 and one bag with tip 233. Fill tip 32 bags, separately, with light lilac, light lavender, cornflower blue and white icing. Fill tip 233 bag with light turquoise icing.
11. Ice cupcakes. On cake board or surface, arrange cupcakes into basket shape (starting at bottom, make row of 4, then 5, then 6 cupcakes to form basket, then 9 cupcakes to form handle).
12. Prepare decorating bag with white icing. Cut ¾ in. off end of bag. Pipe icing all over tops of cupcakes; smooth over all cupcakes using spatula.
13. To prevent your cupcakes from shifting, secure them to the surface with a dot of buttercream.
14. Pipe basketweave. Mark 1½ in. down from top row of 6 cupcakes (this is the top of the basketweave). Using light lilac, light lavender, cornflower blue and white icing, pipe basketweave over bottom 3 rows of cupcakes (vertical lines with white, horizontal lines with tinted icing).
15. Use edge of a spatula to mark where the vertical white stripes will be piped. Start in the middle with one vertical line, then angle slightly more and more as you move outward to the sides, like a fan.
16. Pipe rope. Using same bags from basketweave, pipe rope technique to form handle of basket, alternating colors with white.
17. Decorate cake. Position candy eggs above basketweave (in top 1½ in. area of cupcakes).
18. Using white bag with tip 32, pipe rope border on bottom and top of basket.
19. Using light turquoise bag with tip 233, pipe grass in between eggs. Sprinkle grass with Easter sprinkles.
20. *FOR CANDY - Combine Royal Blue, Bright Pink and Bright White candies to get light and dark lavender colors shown. Combine Red, Yellow, a few Orange and Bright White candies to get medium peach color shown. Combine Bright Pink, Red, and Bright White candies to get rose color shown.
21. **FOR ICING - Combine Violet and Royal Blue icing colors to get light lilac color shown. Combine Violet and Rose icing colors to get light lavender color shown. Combine Teal and Kelly Green icing colors to get light turquoise color shown.