Easy Cupcakes

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.

Pumpkin cupcake with vines

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.