Sometimes the best gifts are homemade, and sometimes gifts have to be homemade. Just Born has a long range of Peeps merchandise, but there's certain things you know won't find. For instance, no one has produced a Peeps cake pan, and more than likely none will be made available in the near future.
Although Just Born offers a laundry list of Peep recipes, there's tons of treats supplemented in various cooking and housekeeping magazines. However, the majority of these recipes use Peeps as an ingredients as opposed to forging food in the likeness of the Peep. Thus we Peepaholics have to get creative and spark some flames in the name of the marshmallow confection.
With basic ingredients, I set out to make my own Peeps cake. I used a 10" round Wilton cake pan and filled it up with a basic Betty Crocker Devil's Food mix. Then I picked up some Wilton Ready-to-Decorate colored icing cans. The icing comes in a wide variety of colors and best of all, includes decorating tips. After the cake was fully baked it was cooled and then flipped over on a large plate. To get the perfect Chick shape I printed out a large image of a Peep Chick and placed it in the middle, then traced around it with white icing. After that, it was simply a matter of filling in the blanks.
This lovely lady's eye is just one brown M&M. The rest is all cake and icing. Total time from start to finish was approximately an hour and a half. I'm saving this baby for dessert after Easter dinner, so you'll have to wait until then to ask me just how amazingly delicious it is.
Since Easter videos are scarce, and you can only watch It's the Easter Beagle, Charlie Brown so many times, I have a Peep alternative for you. You can buy the full factory tour of Just Born on DVD from the Pennsylvania Cable Network website. It's been a little while since I've seen it, but it's packed with Peeps and shows them being made start to finish, from going into a sugar storm to dotting on those little wax eyes. Pick it up and spend 30 minutes less having to talk to your pesky relatives this holiday.
Have a safe and Happy Easter!
-Mystie