Easy Cupcakes

An orange-colored Mentos candy colored with food-safe pen makes the perfect Jack o’ lantern cupcake for Halloween. Try “carving” different face designs and make a whole pumpkin patch!

What You Need: 1 cupcake; chocolate frosting; Halloween (or any) sprinkles; 1 orange Mentos candy from the Fruit roll; food-safe black pen; bit of green fruit roll or string.

How to Make It: Frost cupcake. Use food-safe pen to draw face on Mentos for Jack-o-lantern. Attach bit of green fruit roll with dab of icing. Place on cupcake. Add sprinkles.

A few weeks ago, Mentos asked to post my pig cupcake on its Facebook page. Of course, I was happy to share, and yesterday I came home to a FedEx envelope full of rolls of fruit and peppermint Mentos! Those got the creative juices flowing and thus this post begins a series of cupcakes featuring Mentos candies.

What You Need: 1 cupcake; chocolate or green-tinted frosting; 4 or 5 orange Mentos candies; green fruit leather or string; scissors or knife.

How to Make It: Frost cupcake with chocolate for “dirt” or green for “grass.” Cut 4 or 5 quarter-inch lengths of fruity string. Use tiny dabs of icing to adhere to tops of Mentos for pumpkin stalks. Arrange on top of cupcake. Fill in with curls of fruit string for vines.

Make this pretty pumpkin cupcakes for Halloween or any fall festivity using only fruit gel candies and green writing icing.

What You Need: 1 cupcake; white or off-white frosting; 1 orange gel candy; green gel or writing icing in tube.

How to Make It: Frost cupcake. Place orange gel candy on it. Use writing icing to draw pumpkin stem and vine. That’s it!

You need a nice, tall cupcake for this Halloween or fall pumpkin cupcake, so fill the baking cups three-quarters full rather than two-thirds.

What You Need: 1 cupcake; orange frosting; orange sugar or sprinkles; orange gel or writing icing in tube; green candy laces (optional); green Laffy Taffy, Starburst or similar chewy candy.

How to Make It: Frost cupcake. If your cupcakes are too flat, just pile the icing up high. You can either dip the cupcakes in a bowl of orange sugar or sprinkles, or sprinkle over the cupcake. (Sprinkle over a paper plate or bowl so you don’t waste any.) Use writing icing or gel to draw four or five lines going from the top to the edge of the cupcake. Roll chewy candy into stem shape and place on top of pumpkin. Roll more chewy candy into vine shapes, or just use green candy vines if you can find them. (I got mine at Candy Tyme in the mall.)

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.”

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.