Easy Cupcakes

The trick to these Halloween werewolf cupcakes is to make sure the frosting looks nice and “furry” by pulling upward with your knife or spatula several times to form peaks.

What You Need: 1 cupcake (baked and cooled); chocolate frosting; 4 candy corn pieces; 1 red jellybean; 2 yellow M&Ms; candy eyes (or use candy dots or just a dab of black writing icing).
Make That Cupcake!: Frost cupcake generously, and pull upward with knife or spatula to form fur-like peaks. Add 4 candy corns for teeth, a red jellybean nose, 2 upside-down yellow M&Ms for eyes and then use a tiny dab of icing to attach a candy eye or candy dots (the kind that come on a strip of paper) or just a little dot of writing icing. It’s howling good fun!

This Jack o’ lantern cupcake comes with his own handle! But don’t try to pick him up; it’s just licorice.

What You Need: 1 cupcake (baked and cooled); white or off-white frosting; orange food coloring (paste or mix red and yellow liquid food coloring); 2 candy corns; 1 orange M&M; candy orange slice; length of black licorice.
Make That Cupcake!: Tint icing orange and frost cupcake. Add candy corn eyes, M&M nose and candy orange mouth. Poke ends of licorice string into cupcake for “handle.”

These long-legged spider cookies are quick to make and fun to eat, thanks to a chocolate sandwich cookie perched on top.

What You Need: 1 cupcake, baked and cooled; white or off-white icing; orange paste or red and yellow liquid food coloring; chocolate sandwich cookie (such as Oreo; we used Joe Joe’s from Trader Joe’s); black licorice whips; cinnamon imperials (red hots).
How to Make It: Tint icing orange and frost cupcake orange. Cut licorice into eight equal lengths and press four into each side of the cookie. Use dab of icing to attach red hot eyes to cookie. Place cookie on cupcake. Couldn’t be easier!

These cupcakes have the best of both worlds: cake and ice cream cones. Use your imagination on the scarecrow’s face as well as the cone “hat.” Shredded wheat cereal is the hay!

What You Need: 1 cupcake, baked and cooled; cream-colored icing; ice cream cone (“cake” style, with or without chocolate dip); red fruit roll; shredded wheat cereal; candy corn; red and blue M&Ms; red writing icing or gel.
How to Make It: Frost cupcake and immediately sprinkle crunched-up shredded wheat on top one-third for scarecrow hay. Wrap fruit roll (we used “Fruit by the Foot”) around ice cream cone and tie in knot. Position hat toward top of cupcake, shoving it in a bit so it stays put. Make face as shown with blue M&Ms for eyes, red mouth with red M&M cheeks and candy corn nose.

There’s a little trick with this treat: a fun spider web pattern that may look hard to make but is really quite simple.

What You Need: 1 cupcake (baked and cooled), white frosting, black writing icing or gel, plastic spider or toy spider ring, toothpick.

Make That Cupcake!: Frost cupcake white. Squeeze a small (about 1/2″) blob of black icing on the top of the cupcake (or off-center, depending on how you’d like your web to look). Use writing tip with icing or gel tube to draw two circles, one inside of the other, around the center blob. Place toothpick in center icing blob and draw toothpick in one smooth motion from the center to the edge of the cupcake. Wiping off toothpick in between, continue around the cupcake, nine or 10 times equally spaced until you have a nice web shape. Place spider in center of cupcake. Make sure no one eats the spider!

Take a break from scary Halloween cupcakes and mellow out with these pumpkin patch cupcakes featuring mellocreme pumpkins.

What You Need: 1 cupcake (baked and cooled), white, off-white or chocolate frosting, coconut flakes, green food coloring (liquid or paste), mellowcreme pumpkins.
How to Make It: Frost cupcake. Tint small amount of coconut flakes green and sprinkle on top of cupcake for “grass.” Add mellowcreme pumpkins. So easy it’s scary! Make up a whole batch and you’ll have pumpkin fields forever.

These cupcakes may not look appetizing, but trust us, they taste great while also being good for a laugh at a Halloween party.

What You Need: 1 cupcake (baked and cooled); white frosting, red writing icing or gel, green or blue gumdrop, red hot imperial candy.
How to Make It: Frost cupcake using white icing. Using rolling pin, glass or just your hands, squish a gumdrop into a flat disk. Use a dab of frosting to stick red hot candy to gumdrop for pupil of eye. Stick the eye in the center of the frosted cupcake. Use red writing icing or gel to draw on veins to make the “eyes” look bloodshot. So creepy your eyes will get watery just making them!