Royal Icing Bird Nests with Eggs

If you need an absolutely adorable cupcake topper or cake decoration, look no further. In fact, I think these sweet little bird nests could be served straight up. Make a batch of royal icing and get set up with a piece of parchment paper taped to a cookie sheet:

Drop a multi-hole tip like the Ateco #234 into a piping bag (Wilton makes a similarly-numbered tip). This is a larger version of the #233, which is useful for piping small-scale grass, fur, hair, flower centers, etc. I wouldn't bother using a coupler for this project:

Load the bag with some brown royal icing. I used AmeriColor Soft Gel Paste in Chocolate Brown:

Set out jelly beans or small malted eggs in groups of three for each nest. No point in fumbling for the right color or sifting out the mutant ones while your icing is drying.

Holding the bag perpendicular to the surface, pipe a circle about 1.5" across. Finish it by spiraling in toward the center. I gave it a little extra "squish" in the center to hold the "eggs" in place:

Nestle the three eggs into the center. You could easily color-coordinate them for some event other than Easter. Being Irish, I'm always looking for new ways to use these colors:

I'd better get started on some royal icing birds to sit on these…