Brown bear cupcake

What You Need: 1 cupcake; chocolate frosting; 2 black M&Ms; 1 blackberry candy; 6 Cocoa Puffs.

How to Make It: Frost cupcake. Arrange 3 Cocoa Puffs on each side of top of cupcake for ears. Add M&M eyes and berry nose.

Bear cupcake

What You Need: 1 cupcake; white or off-white frosting; 2 Nilla Wafers; 1 Junior Mint; 2 black or dark brown M&Ms; knife.

How to Make It: Frost cupcake. Place Nilla wafer cookie toward bottom of cupcake for muzzle. Use dab of icing to adhere Junior Mint nose about 2/3 from bottom of cookie muzzle. Add M&M eyes. Cut another Nilla Wafer in half and place halves at top for ears.

Candy panda bear cupcake

What You Need: 1 cupcake; white frosting; 2 black (licorice) Necco wafers; 2 black M&Ms; 2 white jellybeans; 1 black jellybean; bit of red string licorice.

How to Make It: Frost cupcake. Place M&Ms near top for ears. Use dab of icing to attach white jellybeans to Necco wafers for eyes. Add black jellybean nose and licorice mouth.

Polar bear cupcake

What You Need: 1 cupcake; white frosting; shaved coconut; blackberry-shaped gummi candy (or other black candy); 2 mini marshmallows; 2 blue mini M&Ms.

How to Make It: Frost cupcake. Sprinkle with coconut. Add eyes, ears and nose. That’s it!

St. Patrick's Day bear cupcake

What You Need: 1 cupcake; green frosting; chocolate frosting; 1 red hot candy (round); 2 red hot candies (heart shaped); 6 green mini M&Ms; 2 candy eyes or small white candies; pastry bag with coupler and #5 and #2 metal tips.

How to Make It: Frost cupcake green. Use chocolate icing and pastry bag with round #5 tip to pipe a bear face, muzzle and two ears. Add eyes and red nose. Place 2 heart-shaped red hots with points facing to form bow tie. Arrange 3 green mini M&Ms in two areas to form shamrocks. Use #2 metal tip to add chocolate stem.

3 Bears cupcake

These cute bear cupcakes would be great for a baby shower, fairy tale themed birthday party or any Goldilocks who loves cupcakes.

What You Need: 1 cupcake; chocolate frosting; white or vanilla frosting; pink icing (in a tube or in a pastry bag with #1 metal tip and coupler); candy eyes or small candies; pastry bag and #5 metal tip.

How to Make It: Frost cupcake white. Using pastry bag and #5 metal tip, pipe bears: make two faces larger than the third baby bear face and add smaller circles for ears. Add eyes. Use #1 tip and pink icing (or icing in a tube) for nose and mouth.

Valentine bear cupcake

Make these cute pink bear cupcakes for a Valentine’s Day party at your kid’s school, or for your sweetheart.

What You Need: 1 cupcake; white frosting; frosting tinted pink (or just use Pillsbury’s Valentine frosting like I did); chocolate frosting (or black writing icing in a tube); 2 heart-shaped cinnamon candies; pastry bag and coupler; No. 12 metal tip; No. 5 metal tip; No. 1 metal tip. (No. 1 is for the eyes, nose and mouth.)

How to Make It: Frost cupcake white. Fit pastry bag with coupler and No. 12 metal tip and fill partway with pink icing. Squeeze in one spot near center of cupcake (don’t pull up) for bear head. Switch to No. 5 tip. Squeeze to create bear’s muzzle and ears. Use pastry bag and No. 1 tip to add features using chocolate icing. Add 2 heart-shaped red hots, points touching, for bow. For a girl bear, add a bow to her “hair.”

What You Need: 1 cupcake; white frosting; 2 mini Oreo cookies; 2 Junior Mints; 1 black jellybean; red and white writing icing or gel.

How to Make It: Frost cupcake generously, so the Oreos will have a base in which to stick upright. Add 2 Oreo cookies for ears. Add Junior Mint eyes and pipe white dot in center. Add jellybean nose and pipe mouth beneath it as shown.

I’ve seen versions of these bear cupcakes in several books and magazines and finally went looking for the chocolate nonpareil wafer candies that form the muzzle for these cute cubs. Immediately, I whipped up a batch for the preschool bake sale. My 3-year-old put the “muzzle” candies on.
What You Need: 1 cupcake; chocolate frosting; chocolate nonpareil (white sprinkles) candy; red hot cinnamon imperial candies; red icing or gel (I just used Wilton icing in a premade tube with a #3 tip and coupler.)
How to Make It: Frost cupcakes. Place chocolate nonpareil in center. Use red to “draw” on a mouth as shown. Immediately (so it will stick) place red hot candy for nose and 2 for eyes. If you want, you can add cookies (such as mini Oreos or mini Nilla wafers) for ears.