Easy Cupcakes

Fish bowl cupcake

It’s the first ever “guest cupcakes” post on EasyCupcakes.com! Emily K. and her kids had a blast making and decorating these fishbowl-themed cupcakes. Thanks for sharing them, Emily!

What You Need: 1 cupcake; white frosting; frosting tinted blue; gummi fish (Swedish fish); Nerds candies; green fruit rolls; scissors or butter knife.

How to Make It: Frost cupcake with a thin layer of white icing. Let dry for a bit. Frost all but about a half-inch area at the top of the cupcake with blue icing so it looks like water in a bowl. Put a bunch of colorful Nerds candies near the bottom of the “bowl” for gravel. Cut fruit roll into long pieces like aquarium plants, folding some over at the top. Add your fish!

Santa hat cupcake

There’s a huge amount of frosting on this cupcake, so prepare for a Santa-themed sugar shock. There are several ways you could approach a Santa hat design, but I didn’t feel like getting out the pastry bag and 1M swirl tip, so I just piled on the red frosting and whipped out my can of Betty Crocker Decorating Cupcake Icing.

What You Need: 1 cupcake; frosting tinted red (use no-taste red in paste form for best results); white aerosol icing.

How to Make It: Pile on a nice, tall mound of red icing. Use aerosol icing with star tip attached to pipe a border around the rim of the cupcake and a pom pom for the top of the hat.

Easy zigzag Christmas tree

Here are some super-easy Christmas tree cupcakes with no decorating bag or tips required! Just buy green icing in a tube!

What You Need: 1 cupcake; white frosting; green gel or writing icing in tube; Christmas sprinkles; large yellow star sprinkle (this one is from Wilton.)

How to Make It: Frost cupcake. Use green writing icing to draw zigzag pattern shaped like a tree (skinny on top, wide on the bottom.) You can add a trunk or leave it abstract. Place star confetti on top and sprinkle with sprinkles.

Patriotic flower cupcake

For Election Day, Fourth of July or any patriotic occasion, these red, white and blue flower cupcakes add prettiness to the party.

What You Need: 1 cupcake; white frosting; blue candy-covered sunflower seeds; red hot candies (cinnamon imperials).

How to Make It: Frost cupcake. Arrange blue sunflower seeds, point facing inward, around red hots.

Election Day flag cupcake

Planning an election night party? Or, perhaps you’re reading this post after the Nov. 4, 2008 presidential election and want to decorate cupcakes for the Fourth of July or another patriotic event. This flag cupcakes fit the bill! Whether you’re for Obama, McCain or even Nadar, there’s one thing we can all agree on: Cupcakes are yummy.

What You Need: 1 cupcake; frosting tinted red (use no-taste red paste food coloring if you can); icing in aerosol can such as Betty Crocker’s (or use pastry bag and ribbon tip); large blue confetti stars.

How to Make It: Frost cupcake red. Attach ribbon tip to icing can and draw stripes across the cupcake, leaving a square at the top left area for the stars. Add blue stars.

Candy corn skull

Candy corn really does look like teeth, especially the “autumn” kind with the brown ends.

What You Need: 1 cupcake; white or off-white frosting; black gel or writing icing in tube; 5 candy corns (brown end or regular); 2 black or brown M&Ms.

How to Make It: Frost cupcake. Use black writing icing to draw a skull shape (fat top and thinner bottom) on cupcake. Add 2 black M&Ms for eyes. Break fat ends off of candy corns and arrange on cupcake with three “teeth” on top and two on bottom for mouth.

Frosted mummy cupcake

I had more fun experimenting with the Betty Crocker aerosol cupcake frosting and ended up with a creepy mummy. The trick is learning to control the flow of the frosting, and I can’t really say I’ve mastered it yet.

What You Need: 1 cupcake; white frosting; white aerosol icing (or you could use a pastry bag with a ribbon tip); 2 black or brown M&Ms. (Black M&Ms are sold at Halloween and in specialty candy stores, but brown or blue or red is just fine.)

How to Make It: Frost cupcake with regular white frosting. Place 2 M&Ms for eyes. “Draw” white icing ribbons (mummy wrappers), overlapping, several times until cupcake is covered except for the eyes.