Easy Cupcakes

It was my 3-year-old’s idea to add a licorice stinger to this bee cupcake.

What You Need: 1 cupcake; frosting tinted yellow; black writing icing or gel; round mint cookie (or similar dark cookie); Jordan almond (or gumdrop or other candy); bit of black string licorice.

How to Make It: Frost cupcake. Use black writing icing and round tip to pipe 3 or 4 stripes on bee body. Cut cookie in half and place in frosting to make wings. Add bit of black licorice for stinger. Pipe 2 black eyes on almond and place on cupcake for head.

Making pink ladybugs is especially easy, because you don’t have to try to blend dye into your frosting to make an intense red. Plus, pink ladybugs are cute and girly!

What You Need: 1 cupcake; frosting tinted pink (we used Wilton Aster Mauve paste food coloring); brown mini M&Ms; mini Oreo; red writing icing or gel in tube; black writing icing or gel in tube; candy eyes or white writing icing.

How to Make It: Frost cupcake. Use red icing to pipe mouth on Oreo and attach eyes with dab of frosting. Place on front of cupcake. Use black to pipe line from back of head down center of cupcake. Place M&Ms, upside down, on “body.”

Kids love these creepy, crawly cupcakes that are super easy to make.
What You Need: 1 cupcake; frosting (green or chocolate); 2 gummi worms; chocolate sandwich cookies (such as Oreos).
How to Make It: Frost cupcake. Crush cookies in plastic bag and sprinkle crumbs on cupcake. Add gummi worms. (We cut one in half so it would look like the worm was crawling out of the dirt.)