These cute Bird’s Nest Cupcakes will brighten any spring or Easter celebration! Top your favorite cupcakes with delicious buttercream nests, then fill them with festive Easter candy eggs and chicks.
🐣 Bird’s Nest Cupcakes Are An Easy Easter Dessert
Bird’s nest treats are a classic Easter dessert, and for good reason. Spring is a time for celebrating new beginnings, and a bird’s nest with soon-to-hatch eggs is the perfect symbol of that.
We love all kinds of bird’s nest desserts around here — check out this reader-favorite Easter Nest Cake, or these super-easy no-bake Chocolate Easter Nest Cookies! So it was only natural that we add a cupcake version as well.
These Bird’s Nest Easter Cupcakes are a fun semi-homemade recipe that is sure to be a hit with both kids and adults. They’re easy to make, and you can customize them in all kinds of ways.
More Easter Cupcakes
Can’t get enough Easter cupcakes? Our full list of Easter dessert recipes has lots of fun cupcakes that are perfect for any spring celebration.
Try our Bunny Butt Cupcakes, Baby Chick Cupcakes, Easter Basket Cupcakes, Easter Bunny Cupcakes, and Double Chocolate Easter Cupcakes.
Table of Contents
🧾 What You’ll Need
Here are a few things to keep in mind as you gather the supplies to make these cupcakes. (Links are affiliate links and I earn a small commission from qualifying purchases.)
- Cake mix: Because these cupcakes are all about the decorating, I recommend keeping it simple and using a boxed cake mix as your cupcake base. Want a homemade option? Check out the Spring Chick Cupcake recipe.
- Frosting: We’re using a simple homemade buttercream frosting for the bird nests. I do not recommend using store-bought canned frosting (ie, the frosting sold in plastic cans near the cake mixes.) It is too soft for this decorating technique.
- Shredded coconut: I like to add toasted sweetened shredded coconut in the nest, for both flavor and appearance. If you are not a coconut lover, you can skip this step.
- Candy eggs: Fill the nests with Jordan almonds, Cadbury mini chocolate eggs, jelly beans, or other Easter candy of your choice!
- Green gel food coloring: Gel food coloring gives our buttercream a realistic green color. For this recipe, I used Americolor Leaf Green.
- Piping bags: I like these disposable piping bags (I wash them and re-use them to reduce waste!)
- Piping tips: You will need a small leaf tip and a grass tip to make the leaves and nest.
- Food safe markers: This is optional, but if you want to draw cute chick faces on your candies, you’ll want to use food-safe edible markers.
Ready to Make These?
- Get the recipe below 👇👇
- Scroll below the recipe card for step-by-step photos
- Read tips, variations and more
🥕 More Easter Cupcakes
Are these adorable bunny butt cupcakes the cutest Easter cupcakes ever? Maybe, but they have some stiff competition! Check out some of our other springtime-themed cupcakes:
Leave a Review!
If you make this recipe, let us know! Leave a ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ rating on the recipe below, and leave a comment, take a photo and tag me on Instagram @elabau, or use #sugarhero on IG!
Easter Bird’s Nest Cupcakes
Ingredients
For the cupcakes:
- 1 box yellow cake mix, plus ingredients to prepare mix
For the frosting:
- 8 oz unsalted butter, (1 cup), at room temperature
- 2 tsp vanilla extract
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 24 oz powdered sugar, (6 cups)
- 6 TBSP milk, plus more if necessary
- 4 oz unsweetened chocolate, finely chopped
- Green gel food coloring
To decorate:
- 2 oz sweetened shredded coconut, (⅔ cup)
- 100 candy eggs, or Jordan almonds or jelly beans
- Food-safe markers
Instructions
To make the cupcakes:
- Prepare the cupcakes according to the package instructions. Bake them and let them cool completely.
To make the frosting:
- Beat the butter with an electric mixer on medium speed for about 2 minutes, until creamy and light in color.
- Add the salt and vanilla and mix it in.
- Turn the mixer speed to low, and add half of the powdered sugar. Once it’s mostly incorporated, add half of the milk and mix it in.
- Repeat with the second half of the powdered sugar and the rest of the milk. Once everything is added, scrape down the sides and bottom of the mixing bowl, then mix on medium speed for about a minute, until creamy and smooth.
- At this point you can add more milk or sugar, if desired, to get the consistency you want.
- Melt the unsweetened chocolate in the microwave, then let it cool until it is barely warm to the touch.
- Divide the frosting in half, and mix the melted chocolate into one half to make chocolate frosting. Color the remaining half with green food coloring to make a leaf green color.
To decorate:
- First toast the coconut: Preheat the oven to 350 F. Scatter the coconut on a small baking sheet and bake the coconut for 5-10 minutes, until the coconut is a light brown color and has an amazing toasted coconut smell. Stir every 3-4 minutes, so that it doesn’t burn around the edges. Cool the coconut completely.
- Place the green frosting in a piping bag fitted with a small leaf tip. Pipe a circle of leaves around the outside of a cupcake, then add a second circle of leaves slightly overlapping the first.
- Place the chocolate frosting in a piping bag fitted with a grass tip. Pipe a swirl of frosting on top of the leaf border, then go around the edge several more times, building up the sides so that the frosting looks like a nest.
- Add a dollop of chocolate frosting in the center of each cupcake, and press a spoonful of toasted coconut on top, in the center of the nest.
- Use the food markers to draw eyes and a beak on some of your candy eggs, if desired. Then fill the nests with your candy chicks, eggs, marshmallow Peeps, or any other candies you’d like!
- Your Easter Bird’s Nest Cupcakes are now ready to be enjoyed! Store extras in an airtight container at room temperature for 2-3 days, or in the refrigerator for up to a week. If they have been chilled, allow them to come to room temperature before serving for the best taste and texture.
Measuring Tips
Our recipes are developed using weight measurements, and we highly recommend using a kitchen scale for baking whenever possible. However, if you prefer to use cups, volume measurements are provided as well. PLEASE NOTE: the adage “8 oz = 1 cup” is NOT true when speaking about weight, so don’t be concerned if the measurements don’t fit this formula.
Want to learn more about baking measurements and conversion?
Nutrition
📸 Photo Tutorial: How to Make Easter Nest Cupcakes
Here’s a photo tutorial showing how to decorate these bird nest cupcakes. Full instructions are included in the recipe card above.
Pipe the leaves
- Color half of your buttercream green, and fill a piping bag fitted with a small leaf tip.
- Carefully pipe two layers of small leaves around the outside of the top of the cupcakes.
Pipe the nest
- Fit another piping bag with a grass tip, and fill it with chocolate buttercream.
- Pipe a circle of chocolate buttercream on top of the leaves to create a nest shape. Add two or three layers until the nest is built up slightly.
Fill the nest with toasted coconut
- Place a dollop of chocolate buttercream in the center of the nest.
- Sprinkle toasted coconut in the center.
Decorate the eggs and add them to the nest
- If desired, use a food-safe marker to draw eyes and a beak on some of the candies.
- Place an assortment of candy Easter eggs in the buttercream nest on top of the toasted coconut.
- Enjoy!
💭 Variations
Try one of these fun ideas to customize these bird’s nests:
- Mix ‘n’ match the cake and buttercream flavors. I love these with yellow or white cupcakes, but you could also use lemon, strawberry, or chocolate cupcakes instead.
- If you don’t like coconut, you could use another ingredient in the nest like crushed nuts, edible Easter grass, or crunchy chow mein noodles.
- Use fun cupcake wrappers. You could do a variety of pastel colors, green ombre to match the leaves or some fun Easter wrappers.
- Place a surprise inside the cupcake like jam, jelly beans or a truffle.
- Have fun with the types of candy you decorate the nest with. How about marshmallow Peep chicks in the nests? The sky and your imagination are the limit!
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These are the cutest cupcakes ever! The sound delicious, too. It really doesn’t get any better than this for an Easter treat.
Hi Beth. Thank you so much for commenting. I hope you have a Happy Easter! Cheers.
Easter Bird’s Nest Cupcakes are so adorable! My children and I made them last night and had such a blast! I will be making more this week for Easter Sunday!
Hello Heidy! So glad you and your kids could make them together. That sounds like so much fun! Happy Easter.
These cupcakes are super adorable, fun and festive! They will be the hit of any Easter meal.
Thanks Nikki! I hope you and your family enjoy them.
I found these just in time for Easter! So fun!
Hi Jess! So glad you found them before Easter, LOL. I hope you have a great holiday.
what a cute Easter cupcake – my kids love it. thanks for the lovely recipe.
You’re welcome Nancy! Happy Easter.