Easy Cupcakes

Candy corn skull

Candy corn really does look like teeth, especially the “autumn” kind with the brown ends.

What You Need: 1 cupcake; white or off-white frosting; black gel or writing icing in tube; 5 candy corns (brown end or regular); 2 black or brown M&Ms.

How to Make It: Frost cupcake. Use black writing icing to draw a skull shape (fat top and thinner bottom) on cupcake. Add 2 black M&Ms for eyes. Break fat ends off of candy corns and arrange on cupcake with three “teeth” on top and two on bottom for mouth.

Frosted mummy cupcake

I had more fun experimenting with the Betty Crocker aerosol cupcake frosting and ended up with a creepy mummy. The trick is learning to control the flow of the frosting, and I can’t really say I’ve mastered it yet.

What You Need: 1 cupcake; white frosting; white aerosol icing (or you could use a pastry bag with a ribbon tip); 2 black or brown M&Ms. (Black M&Ms are sold at Halloween and in specialty candy stores, but brown or blue or red is just fine.)

How to Make It: Frost cupcake with regular white frosting. Place 2 M&Ms for eyes. “Draw” white icing ribbons (mummy wrappers), overlapping, several times until cupcake is covered except for the eyes.

Ghost cupcake

I went crazy with a can of Betty Crocker Decorating Cupcake Icing to make these cupcakes, but you can use a pastry bag with a 1M swirl tip, or just pile on a dollop of white icing.

What You Need: 1 cupcake; Better Crocker Decorating Cupcake Icing (or Easy Flow icing or other substitute) in Cloud White; 2 black jellybeans.

How to Make It: Attach star tip and test the flow of icing before applying to cupcake. Then, starting from the outside edge of the cupcake, “draw” circles of icing, moving inward and up at an even pace until you have a ghostly mound of icing. Stick 2 black jellybeans into icing for eyes.

You need a nice, tall cupcake for this Halloween or fall pumpkin cupcake, so fill the baking cups three-quarters full rather than two-thirds.

Pumpkin cupcake with vines

What You Need: 1 cupcake; orange frosting; orange sugar or sprinkles; orange gel or writing icing in tube; green candy laces (optional); green Laffy Taffy, Starburst or similar chewy candy.

How to Make It: Frost cupcake. If your cupcakes are too flat, just pile the icing up high. You can either dip the cupcakes in a bowl of orange sugar or sprinkles, or sprinkle over the cupcake. (Sprinkle over a paper plate or bowl so you don’t waste any.) Use writing icing or gel to draw four or five lines going from the top to the edge of the cupcake. Roll chewy candy into stem shape and place on top of pumpkin. Roll more chewy candy into vine shapes, or just use green candy vines if you can find them. (I got mine at Candy Tyme in the mall.)

Bones and worms cupcake

What’s that emerging from the dirt? Why, it’s creepy bones and ghoulish arms. All edible, of course.

What You Need: 1 cupcake; frosting tinted green; Oreos or other dark sandwich cookie; dog bone candies (check your local gumball machines); gummy candies (I cut the arms off an octopus, but you might not be so brutal so use your imagination.)

How to Make It: Frost cupcake. Crumble up the outside parts of the cookie (not the creamy center; you can scrape that off and eat it). You can smash them up in a zip-close bag or in a bowl or however you please. Sprinkle around center of cupcake. Add some gummies coming out of the dirt. You could use regular gummi worms if you’d like. Add bone candies.

Bloody eyeball cupcake

Nothing says Halloween like a bloody eyeball. This version uses Betty Crocker Fruit Roll-Ups Stackerz, but you could substitute Necco wafers or pretty much any disk-like colored candy.

What You Need: 1 cupcake; white frosting; Stackerz or other round candy; red hots (cinnamon imperials); red gel icing in tube.

How to Make It: Frost cupcake. Use red gel icing to draw bloodshot squiggles outward from center of cupcake. Use dab of icing to adhere red hot to center of disk-shaped candy. Place in center of cupcake.

Skull cupcake

Nothing says “Halloween” and “appetizing” like the dried-up skull of the undead. But seriously, folks: With just frosting and black icing you can make your own skeleton or skull cupcakes.

What You Need: 1 cupcake; white or off-white (cream cheese) frosting; black gel or writing icing in a tube.

How to Make It: Frost cupcake. Try to smooth the frosting down so you have a nice, flat base on which to draw your evil skull face. (You may note that I did not, thus my skull is sloppy.) Use gel or writing icing to draw blobby eyes, 2 dots for a creepy nose and a line with little lines crossing over it for a mouth.