Cream Puffs for Easter

What will I have for my Easter desserts.....mini Cream Puffs!  

And they were so cute on the dessert bar!  

Yummy and easy Cream Puffs! 

My French born sister-in-law Danielle makes these TO DIE FOR cream puffs every year at 4th of July. Everyone has come to expect and love them. She actually can't make a different dessert or everyone gets all bent out of shape. So I have been calling her to get her recipe. I wanted to make them for Easter.

The ingredients for cream puffs are only 4....so easy! 

Water, butter, flour and eggs....

Batter before adding the eggs.....I let it beat a little to let off some of the steam....

Then I added 1 egg at a time and beat for a minute in between eggs.....

The cream puff batter is  like pudding...

Easy Cream Puffs:  My French sis-in-law Danielle's recipe
1 cup water
1/2  cube butter
1 cup flour
4 eggs
Heat oven to 400. Heat water and butter to a rolling boil. Stir in flour until
mixture forms a ball. Remove from heat. Let cool a bit till batter is not hot. Beat in eggs one at a time. Drop
dough 1 Tbsp size onto baking sheet using a pastry bag. Mine were about 1 3/4 inches oval x 1 1/2 and I got about 30 little cream puffs. Cook until puffy and golden. I did 14 minutes at 400 and then turned oven down to 350 for 5 minutes. I think from posts I read on other blogs 20 minutes is perfect for smaller cream puffs. Larger ones about 20 minutes at 400 and 4 minutes at 350 but watch them the last 3 minutes. Your oven might be different as I am at high altitude.

These are darling cream puffs too. I LOVED these from HERE at Land O Lakes website.

I piped the batter onto a cookie sheet covered with parchment paper....

I added a blob of cream puff batter to each of the 4 corners...then pressed the parchment paper on top. It helps
"glue" the paper down to the cookie sheets. 

Here are my finished cream puffs....just out of the oven! 

Now they are ready to fill with the creamy, rich pudding filling....each one was a half a handful ! 

Cool. Cut a slit in the side with a knife. Fill cream puffs with a pastry bag filled with the french vanilla pudding mixture.  Make chocolate icing and spread over top.  Keep refrigerated.
Makes 12 large or 24 small cream puffs (mine made 30 little round ones- bigger than the Costco size) I think this is a perfect dessert to bring to Easter dinner because if you have other desserts, this can be a side garnish and they are so cute and yummy too.

French Vanilla Cream Filling
1/2 pint whipping cream (smallest carton)
1 small box instant vanilla pudding
1/2  half cup milk
Whip until thick.

1/2 cup milk, pint of cream and small box of french vanilla instant pudding....

Whip it up and then put into a pastry bag....

Squeeze inside of your little puffs....so easy! 

The filling is really rich and creamy too...I had to pop one in my mouth to taste test it! 

 Chocolate Fudgy Glaze
1/2 slick butter
2 Tbsp. cocoa
2 Tbsp. milk
2 cups powdered sugar

Heat until melted-add 2 cups powdered sugar until melted. Shake a fork
back & forth and then the other way to ice tops of cream puffs.

This was the most delicious chocolate glaze!  

It was easy and quick....

And it tastes like the most divine fudge!  Really!  

I spread it on very generously!  This chocolaty, fudgy glaze was delicious! 

My finished plates of cream puffs....this recipe made 30 puffs....

That was 2 full plates full....enough for a crowd of people....

I added some purple Peeps to the plate of cream puffs... it added the cuteness factor....yeah! .

And I know somebody CUTE who LOVED my cream puffs!  

And somebody else who loved the Easter egg hunt too! 

My cute little girls after their Easter egg hunt...look at all that loot!  

The daddies helped by hiding the eggs and then helping the girls find them all! 

This was very cute to watch, as you can imagine! 

The moms mostly just let the kids run around having a ball! 

Can you tell this one was having a good time too? mmmhmmm......

We found one!  It's pink! 

This may be my favorite pic....."how many did you find?" 

Grandpa giving elephant rides!  Yipee!

My Easter dinner table 2012 minus the ham and cheesy potatoes, salads  and homemade bread...it was all yummo!

Hope everybody had a wonderful Easter dinner!  We sure did! 

Easter Bundt Cake and Cupcakes

I had a party the other night for my only daughter. She is having her first baby boy. So we had a family baby shower celebration. This cake is pretty cute and could be done for Easter too.

I decorated it with cream cheese icing, plastic and candy eggs and little Easter Chick suckers on sticks. 

 It was lots of fun. I made pulled pork, potato salad, veggies and dip and my daughter-in-law Wendy (co-hostess) made a fruit salad with this marshmallow creme dip that was to die for.

Our healthy stuff offset the bad but tempting stuff I think. 

 
 We also had various cookies, donuts, lemon bars, cupcakes and other candies and treats.

 Aren't these cupcakes super cute with the pacifiers on them? They just have mini chocolate chips for eyes.

 I had fun playing with all my collection of pastel sugars and sprinkles. Each cupcake also has a baby pin or rattle sticking out of the top or a circus pick.

 I made a mini heart bundt cake out of lemon mix and frosted it with lemon icing and filled it with lemon curd. It is pretty too.

The guest of honor and the co-hostess. We had some cute decorations too. 

 
 And this game turned out fun. We had 3 minutes to make a baby out of playdough. I think the orange and yellow ones were winners. My little granddaughter Meg liked the tiny pale peach one the best though. lol.

The recipe is from All Recipes.com. It is called Too Much Chocolate Cake. HERE is the link for the recipe. It has 4000 reviews and still 5 stars so it is a serious winner in the dessert department. You cannot go wrong. And the base is a boxed cake mix, so easy!

This was a cute diaper motorcycle made with receiving blankets, socks and diapers. Wendy made this and topped it with a cute stuffed bear. So clever! 

Some of my Easter decorations in the great room. I'm almost done with the grandkids' Easter baskets...but they've already found them and dug into the bubbles and eggs. Rats! 

I really like how it all turned out. Happy Easter everybody!