Easy Cupcakes

Heart shamrock cupcakes

admin — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 19:23:19 +0000

Candy heart shamrock cupcake

Do you have candy hearts left over from Valentine’s Day? Use the green ones to make shamrocks for your St. Patrick’s Day cupcakes! (And if you bought an extra can of green frosting at Christmastime, you’re ahead of the game.)

What You Need: 1 cupcake; white or off-white frosting; 3 candy hearts (Necco, etc.) or four if you want a four-leaf clover; green writing icing with round metal tip or icing in tube; rainbow sprinkles.

How to Make It: Frost cupcake. Arrange hearts in clover shape. Use green icing to “draw” a stem (optional). Sprinkle rim with rainbow sprinkles.

Pink Valentine cupcake with hearts

admin — Sat, 13 Feb 2010 17:34:45 +0000

Pink Valentine cupcake

A medium-sized star tip is the trick to these pink Valentine’s Day cupcakes, which have a heart perched on the top of each start.

What You Need: 1 cupcake; pink frosting; candy heart sprinkles; pastry bag and metal star tip (I used #21) or use tubed icing.

How to Make It: Use star tip to make pink stars all over top of cupcake. Carefully place a colored candy heart on top of each star.

I Love You chocolate cupcakes

admin — Thu, 11 Feb 2010 19:22:31 +0000

I Love You cupcake

For Valentine’s Day or anytime, for romance or “just friends,” these I Love You cupcakes combine chocolate and sentiment. I used strawberry-flavored frosting, so technically they also combine chocolate and strawberry.

What You Need: 1 cupcake; chocolate frosting; pink frosting; pastry bag and round metal tip (I used #4); pink conversation heart.

How to Make It: Frost cupcake with chocolate. Write “I” and “You” using pink frosting, being sure to leave room for the heart. Place heart upside-down in gap.

Valentine’s Day butterfly cupcakes

admin — Thu, 11 Feb 2010 00:53:09 +0000

Valentine butterfly cupcake

When someone gave me these white chocolate-covered pretzels at a party last weekend, my first thought was, “Yeah! Cupcakes!” Chocolate pretzels make great butterflies any time of the year.

What You Need: 1 cupcake; pink frosting (I used strawberry flavored in a can); 2 chocolate-covered pretzels in Valentine colors; black writing icing.

How to Make It: Frost cupcake pink. Position pretzels like butterfly wings. Use black icing to “draw” antennae between the wings.

Valentine’s Day cupcake with red hot hearts

admin — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 19:54:52 +0000

Red hot hearts cupcake

Spice up Valentine cupcakes by simply arranging red hot candies in the shape of a heart.

What You Need: 1 cupcake; frosting tinted pink; red hots (cinnamon imperials).

How to Make It: Frost cupcake. Place red hots on cupcake in a heart shape.

Worm cupcakes

admin — Fri, 22 Jan 2010 18:47:11 +0000

Worm cupcake

Sure, you can just use colorful gummy worms to make tasty and gross cupcakes. But there’s something about a realistic candy earthworm that adds that extra “ew” factor. It even has a segment. I used Gummy Earthworms Candy by Gummies of All Shapes, made by the Iowa-based Foreign Candy Company.

What You Need: 1 cupcake; chocolate frosting; crumbled sandwich cookies (such as Oreo); candy rocks; gummy worm.

How to Make It: Frost cupcake. Crush cookies (a plastic bag works great) and sprinkle on top of cupcake. Add rocks and worm. Yum!

Sunflower cupcakes with chocolate chips

admin — Wed, 13 Jan 2010 16:03:05 +0000

Sunflower cupcake

These sunflower cupcakes are especially easy if you use premade icing in an aerosol can like I did. Great for summer or anytime.

What You Need: 1 cupcake; yellow icing in can or icing tinted yellow and pastry bag; leaf tip (comes with the can); mini chocolate chips.

How to Make It: Using yellow icing and leaf tip, make a layer of petals around the edge of the cupcake, and then a second layer overlapping that. Sprinkle chocolate chips in center.

Beehive and bee cupcakes

admin — Tue, 05 Jan 2010 16:26:18 +0000

Beehive cupcakes

The bee on these beehive cupcakes is similar to a design by Martha Stewart, but canned frosting makes the hive extra easy.

What You Need: 1 cupcake; yellow frosting in aerosol can with star tip; 2 yellow M&Ms; 2 black M&Ms; 2 short lengths stiff black licorice; 2 almond slices; black food-safe pen.

How to Make It: Affix star tip to canned icing and, using a circular motion, create tall beehive on top of cupcake. Using dabs of icing, assemble bee as shown, with M&Ms alternating and almond slice wings on either side. (Use food-safe marker for eyes.) Place near top of cupcake.

Paw cupcakes

admin — Wed, 30 Dec 2009 23:33:55 +0000

Paw cupcake

If you don’t worry about being perfectly accurate with your cupcake mammals, this pawprint cupcake could pass for a bear, dog, cat or other creature.

What You Need: 1 cupcake; white frosting; 1 mint patty (such as Necco); 3 Junior Mints.

How to Make It: Frost cupcake. Arrange 3 Junior Mints above large mint.

Lollypop flower cupcakes

admin — Sat, 26 Dec 2009 22:35:37 +0000

Lollypop flower cupcake

I first saw the lollipop flower concept in a magazine — I think Martha Stewart’s. I used Airheads candy to make the leaves, but you could use Starburst, spearmint gum or even spearmint leaves.

What You Need: 1 cupcake; white frosting; green sugar; 2 Dum Dums (or other round) lollipops; green Airheads or other moldable candy (or cut up green gum or gumdrops).

How to Make It: Frost cupcake. Sprinkle with green sugar for grass. Stick two unwrapped lollipops or suckers, staggered, in top of cupcake. With clean hands or gloves, mold Airheads into leaf shapes (pointy ovals) and place near bottom of flowers.