Donut Easter Nests

Another Easter treat?...Yep!

I love to have fun treats around the house for my grandkids when they come over. Even more than that, I really enjoy having the grandkids help make the treats. Most of my little helpers are ages 5 - 7 , so I try to look for projects that are not too difficult and time consuming. These cute little Easter nests couldn't be easier or faster.

This is one "recipe" that probably doesn't need how-to pictures, but since I have such a nice long web page with so much space I might as well use it! So here goes...

It doesn't take a lot of ingredients. I got a package of little chocolate covered donuts, some Duncan Hines Amazing Glaze (near the frostings in the baking aisle), a package of jelly beans, and some green-tinted coconut.

To make the green-tinted coconut I put about a cup of coconut in a ziplock bag and added a few drops of green food coloring. Then I zipped the bag closed and shook and massaged the bag of coconut until it looked uniformly green. This is something I let the grandkids take turns doing ~ just had to make sure the bag stayed zipped, and the kids didn't get too crazy with it.

I used a sharp knife to slice the little donuts in half ~ horizontally ~ like a bagel.  If you ever want your daughter-in-laws to let you borrow their children again make sure you do not let the little ones do this part of the project.

Then I had one of the 7-year-olds put some glaze on each donut half. I told him to think of it as glue to hold the grass on the nest. We warmed the glaze in the microwave for about 30 seconds before we used it so it would pour easily. This was a little messy, but easily cleaned up.

Next came the "grass". We put the green-tinted coconut on top of the glaze and gave it a little pat to stick it to the glaze.

We added another layer of glue glaze on top of the grass.

 The final step was decorating our nests with jelly beans. The kids really got into making sure they had three different colored jelly beans on each nest ~ I guess those nests didn't hold one set of twins.

This project start-to-finish took about 20 minutes even working with 5 little kids. I put a piece of paper towel in front of each child and let them each decorate their own. It was easy to clean up; we just threw the paper towel away and did some hand washing when we were done. Unfortunately I didn't get pictures of the kids making their nests because I was too busy to pick up my camera. 

What was the taste tester's bottom line?

The kids had a blast making these. They ate their "nests" so fast, I never got a picture. Some ate them slower, by picking off the jelly beans and eating them one-by-one, but most of them just popped the whole thing in their mouth.

The Bottom Line: At Christmas time I try to have fun cookie or treat projects for the kids to do with me. I think I can add Easter treat making to my memory-making arsenal.