Easy Cupcakes

These bird nest cupcakes are made with crispy Chinese noodles and hold three sweet Robins Eggs (Whopper chocolates). They’re great for Easter or any springtime party, and easy for kids to make.

What You Need: cupcake; pink frosting; crunchy chow mein noodles (in the Asian foods aisle or bulk foods bins); Robin Egg chocolate or similar candy.

How to Make It: Frost cupcake. Arrange crispy noodles to form a nest. Place three eggs in varying colors and speckles inside the nest.

When it comes to April Fool’s Day cupcakes, fake food is definitely the way to go. You can make all kinds of “dishes” that look appealing and unappealing at the same time: peas and carrots, potatoes and gravy, and so on. I decided on a fried egg cupcake, served up to my kid on the morning of April 1.

What You Need: 1 cupcake; white frosting; yellow Starburst candy; microwave.

How to Make It: Melt some white frosting in the microwave for 5-10 seconds at about 30 percent power. (The time needed depends on your microwave, and the amount of frosting you’re melting.) Using a spoon, drop a dollop of frosting onto the cupcake and spread it around unevenly so it looks like egg white. Melt an unwrapped lemon Starburst candy in the microwave at 30 percent power for about 5 seconds. Using gloved fingers, shape the candy into an egg yolk and place on top of the egg white.

There’s gold at the end of this lucky rainbow cupcake for St. Patrick’s Day. You can use huge coins like I did, or smaller ones, or no coins at all. The rainbow is an Airheads Extreme sour candy “belt.”

What You Need: 1 cupcake; white frosting; green sugar sprinkles (or use green frosting); metal star tip and pastry bag (or snip end of plastic sandwich bag); Airheads Extreme sour belt; chocolate or plastic coins.

How to Make It: Frost cupcake. Sprinkle with green sugar. Use star tip to make two clouds on either side of the cupcake. Arrange rainbow candy to arch between the two clouds. Add coins to one end.

Purple, green, and gold are the traditional colors for a Mardi Gras party, and these cupcakes will have you celebrating New Orleans style. Add a plastic coin (I got a bunch at the Dollar Tree) or other Mardi Gras item for extra “bling.”

What You Need: 1 cupcake; white frosting; sugar or sprinkles in purple, green and yellow; colored coin, mask, or other Mardi Gras decoration.

How to Make It: Use 1M metal tip to make swirl, or just use a plastic sandwich bag with a corner snipped off. Sprinkle colors in this order: purple, green, gold. Top with coin.

Fruit leather can be cute into cute shapes, as evidenced with these fun tulip cupcakes. They can double as a pretty flower centerpiece at spring parties.

What You Need: 1 cupcake; chocolate frosting; Stackers fruit snacks (by Betty Crocker, or cut with cookie cutters and/or scissors); scissors or knife; 2 green leaf gels; 3 toothpicks.

How to Make It: Using knife or scissors (supervise children), cut leaves in half and cute two notches on each fruit roll circle to form tulip shapes. Stick toothpick into or behind tulip. (You could also “sandwich” the toothpick between two pieces of fruit roll. Stick toothpicks into frosted cupcake. Add half a leaf to either side of two flowers.

I just can’t stop making reindeer cupcakes! I’m out of control! This version of Rudolph, great for Christmas parties, uses chocolate covered pretzels for the antlers. If you have trouble with your antlers flopping over (poor reindeer!), you can stabilize them with toothpicks, but take them out before giving to children.

What You Need: 1 cupcake; milk chocolate frosting; chocolate-covered pretzels such as Flipz; 2 black or dark brown M&Ms; cherry sour ball.

How to Make It: Frost cupcake. Stick pretzels into cupcake (you may want to cut little slits for them). Add eyes and nose.

This Christmas reindeer gets his antlers from Barnum’s animal crackers! I think I used seals — poor creatures. Make a whole team for reindeer for your next holiday event.

What You Need: 1 cupcake; chocolate frosting; red hot or M&M candy; 2 candy eyes or white candies; 2 animal crackers.

How to Make It: Frost cupcake. Add eyes and nose. Stick animal crackers into cupcake upside down for antlers.