Easy Cupcakes

Green ornament cupcake

These ornament cupcakes are fun and fast. Use your imagination and go crazy with all kinds of designs and candies.

What You Need: 1 cupcake; green frosting (I used Pillsbury in a can); chocolate frosting; pastry bag and round tip (#5 is good); mini M&Ms; bit of black licorice.

How to Make It: Frost cupcake with green. Pipe (squeeze out) a line of chocolate frosting, zigzagging back and forth a bit. Pipe round bit of chocolate near top of cupcake and stick part of a piece of licorice in it for “hanger.” Add M&Ms to middle area.

Reindeer sprinkles

Chocolate sprinkles add texture to this reindeer cupcake.

What You Need: 1 cupcake; chocolate frosting; chocolate sprinkles; 2 stick pretzels; red-and-white candy-covered gumdrop (or red gumdrop, or cherry sour ball); red hot for tongue (some brands are a little heart-shaped, which is cute); candy eyes or mini M&Ms.

How to Make It: Frost cupcake. Add chocolate sprinkles. Place eyes, nose and mouth as shown. Stick pretzels near top for antlers.

I’m excited and honored to be today’s guest blogger at Cupcakes Take the Cake! Please check out my EasyCupcakes post and all the other great cupcake news, photos, cupcake shop profiles and other amazing stuff at the cupcake blog that just celebrated its fourth birthday. Thanks so much to Rachel, Allison and Nichelle at Cupcakes Take the Cake, and welcome to new EasyCupcakes.com readers!

Fat snowman cupcake

You don’t have to get all three-dimensional to make a snowman cupcake. This easy snowman’s fruit roll scarf creates the appearance of a head and round body!

What You Need: 1 cupcake; white frosting; 2 green M&Ms; 6 brown M&Ms; red fruit roll; 2 mini pretzel twists; candy corn.

How to Make It: Frost cupcake. Using a knife or scissors, cut a strip of fruit roll and roll into a scarf. Place scarf about two-thirds of the way from the bottom of the cupcake so it separates the head from the body. Fold one end of the “scarf” over a bit. Add brown M&M mouth and eyes. Add candy corn nose. Add 2 green M&M buttons. Break pretzels in to shapes to look like stick hands and place on either side of snowman.

Gingerbread boy and tree cupcake

It’s not cheating to use those little candy shapes you can buy on a card at the grocery store. They’re fun! But you can jazz them up a bit by creating a little scene on your cupcake.

What You Need: 1 cupcake; white frosting; green frosting (I used Pillsbury’s holiday icing in a can); coconut; pastry bag and 1M metal tip or large star tip; Christmas sprinkles; large star sprinkle, premade gingerbread boy.

How to Make It: Frost cupcake while and sprinkle with coconut for snow. Assemble tip and bag with green frosting and make medium green swirl for tree. Add sprinkles and star for decorations. Stick gingerbread man next to tree.

Teddy bear winter picnic

Sure, teddy bears love their picnic cupcakes, but did you know they also like to party in winter?

What You Need: 1 cupcake; white frosting; coconut; red and green gummi bears, white gumdrops or spice drops covered with white non-pareils.

How to Make It: Frost cupcake. Sprinkle with coconut. Add gummi bears and “snow drift” gumdrops.

3D reindeer cupcake

You’ll need to bring out the pastry bag and metal tip for this reindeer cupcake, but the results are worth the effort. I’ve seen variations on this idea in several places, and this is my take on the design.

What You Need: 1 cupcake; chocolate frosting; 2 mini pretzel twists; 1 red M&M; 2 candy eyes (or use mini M&Ms); pastry bag; coupler; metal tip #5.

How to Make It: Frost cupcake. Load chocolate frosting into pastry bag with tip attached. Starting about one-third of the way down from the top edge of the cupcake, pipe a “blob” of frosting for the reindeer’s head. (Don’t move the pastry bag or tip much; just squeeze steadily in one spot and then stop squeezing before pulling away.) Then, below that, pipe a second, smaller blob for the muzzle. Prop a pretzel on either side, add M&M nose and candy eyes and you’re done!