Doughnut diorama depicts ‘Peeps in Paradise’
We’ll announce the winner of The Eagle’s Peeps diorama contest on Sunday, but if you’re in the mood to whip up a treat for Easter morning, the owners of Paradise Donuts have a diorama for you.
Marilyn Wright and her husband, Hervey III, their son, Hervey IV, his girlfriend Sandi Dreitz and loyal teenage employee Clara Wheeler spent hours constructing a doughnut diorama using frosting, Peeps and a few party-store supplies. They called the resulting creation – scenes of hula-dancing Peeps, surfing Peeps, tiki torch-burning Peeps and limbo-contest-competing Peeps – “Peeps in Paradise.”
Their Peep scenes, made on Long Johns and bismarcks, would be relatively easy for creative moms and dads to create and surprise their kids with on Easter morning, Marilyn Wright said.
She said the project was fun but “a little gruesome” for her. She hated the idea of dismembering the poor Peeps, which is why she left them mostly intact. (A few were sacrificed for the construction of a beach ball.)
But her husband, Hervey, was excited, she said. He’s a longtime fan of Peeps.
“He loves them,” she said. “I don’t know if it’s the texture or the flavor. But the Easter Bunny always brings him some.”
Paradise Donuts has stores at 3107 W. Central and 10607 W. Maple.
Peeps in Paradise
Peeps, both chick- and bunny-shaped, in a variety of colors
Maple or blue-frosted Long Johns and bismarcks
Turbinado sugar
Pretzel sticks
Frosting in several colors
Toothpicks
Mini plastic palm trees from party or cake-decorating store
Nutter Butter cookies
Brown sugar
Paradise Donuts will, with a day’s notice, prepare unfrosted or blue-frosted Long Johns to serve as a base. Build a limbo scene on a maple-frosted Long John by sprinkling it with turbinado sugar to serve as sand. Then, build the limbo pole by inserting two pretzel sticks vertically into the doughnut and join them by affixing a horizontal pretzel stick fastened using frosting. Put a chick-shaped Peep underneath it to limbo and place two bunnies, decorated with frosting beachwear and eyes and noses, on either side. The bunnies can be fastened upright using toothpicks, and plastic palm trees add atmosphere.
You can also create a surfing scene on a long john by turning part of a Nutter Butter cookie into a surfboard. Make a wave using blue frosting and affix a surfing bunny onto the board using frosting. A sand castle-building scene can be built on a Bismark using turbinado sugar for sand and pressed-together hunks of brown sugar for sand castle building blocks. Put a chick Peep and a palm tree on the island for a finishing touch.
Paradise Donuts
This story was originally published March 31, 2015 at 2:52 PM with the headline "Doughnut diorama depicts ‘Peeps in Paradise’."