Easy Cupcakes

A chocolate Twizzler makes a great tree! Whip up a forest of these autumn trees quickly for Thanksgiving or any fall festivities.

What You Need: 1 cupcake; yellow frosting; chocolate Twizzler licorice; candy-coated sunflower seeds; scissors.

How to Make It: Frost cupcake. Cut length of Twizzler to slightly shorter than width of the cupcake. Use scissors to cut about four “branches” one-half to two-thirds of the way through the Twizzler. (It’s hollow.) Spread branches apart and place on cupcake. Sprinkle and/or place sunflower seeds on tree and ground for leaves.

These yummy acorn cupcakes are a variation of a design I saw in Woman’s World magazine. (You could also use a molded Tootsie Roll to form the nut.)

What You Need: 1 cupcake; white frosting; chocolate sprinkles; Hershey’s Kiss; 1 caramel; toothpick.

How to Make It: Frost cupcake and add chocolate sprinkles around edge. Using clean or gloved hands, mold caramel into the shape of an acorn cap. Press onto wide end of Kiss. Use toothpick to press crosshatch pattern into caramel.

Shredded Wheat is the straw on these fun scarecrow cupcakes that are made using only candies and cereal — no fancy piping or icing in tubes!

What You Need: 1 cupcake; yellow frosting; chocolate (or black) Twizzler; shredded wheat (I used spoon-size); 2 black or brown M&Ms; orange chocolate covered sunflower seed (or substitute mini M&M turned sideways); black shoelace licorice; scissors or knife.

How to Make It: Frost cupcake. Break apart shredded wheat and sprinkle or place at top and bottom for straw. Cut Twizzler into one length almost as wide as the cupcake and another length slightly shorter. Assemble as shown for hat. Place candy eyes, nose and mouth.

Add the look of “Indian” corn to your harvest table with these easy Thanksgiving cupcakes that look like an ear of dried corn.

What You Need: 1 cupcake; yellow frosting; green sprinkles; assorted fall color Jelly Belly jelly beans; paper and scissors to make a template.

How to Make It: Frost cupcake. Cut a wedge shape from scrap paper to use as a template or “mask” and set it on the cupcake as you sprinkle the rest of the cupcake, forming a corn husk shape. Then remove paper and arrange jelly beans, either skinny side up (like this) or the other way.

Celebrate fall with these easy cupcakes that pair an edible rake with falling leaves. They’re great for harvest festivals and other autumn events.

What You Need: 1 cupcake; yellow frosting; stick pretzel; chocolate Twizzler; leaf-shaped sprinkles (such as by Wilton); scissors or kitchen shears.

How to Make It: Frost cupcake. Break about one-quarter of the pretzel stick off and discard (or eat). Cut about a 1-inch length of Twizzler. Insert scissors into Twizzler (it’s hollow) and make about six cuts around, about two-thirds up. Poke broken end of pretzel into intact end of Twizzler and fan out ends to look like a broom. Place on cupcake. Add leaves to “ground” and “air.”

This acorn cupcake idea was first seen in the hit book Hello, Cupcake!: Irresistibly Playful Creations Anyone Can Make. I made some for my kid’s autumn-themed bake sale and they were a big hit. They’d be great for Thanksgiving, a nut (or Nutella!) cupcake recipe or any fall festivity.

What You Need: 1 cupcake; white or off-white frosting; chocolate frosting; 2 Hershey’s kisses; 2 mini Nilla Wafers; pastry bag and round tip (No. 2 or 3, or just use premade icing in a tube or bag).

How to Make It: Frost cupcake white. Use bit of chocolate frosting to attach mini vanilla wafer cookie to base of unwrapped Hershey’s Kiss. Use pastry bag or tube to add chocolate “stem” to wafer.