Easy Cupcakes

There’s gold at the end of this lucky rainbow cupcake for St. Patrick’s Day. You can use huge coins like I did, or smaller ones, or no coins at all. The rainbow is an Airheads Extreme sour candy “belt.”

What You Need: 1 cupcake; white frosting; green sugar sprinkles (or use green frosting); metal star tip and pastry bag (or snip end of plastic sandwich bag); Airheads Extreme sour belt; chocolate or plastic coins.

How to Make It: Frost cupcake. Sprinkle with green sugar. Use star tip to make two clouds on either side of the cupcake. Arrange rainbow candy to arch between the two clouds. Add coins to one end.

You can easily draw a shamrock to make a St. Patrick’s Day cupcake, thanks to gel icing in a tube!

What You Need: 1 cupcake; green frosting; green gel writing icing.

How to Make It: Frost cupcake green. Use tube to “draw” clover shape. First, draw the outline and then fill in with gel.

All you need is some green icing to draw some hearts and create a clover shape. Don’t worry if you don’t have a pastry bag and metal tip. You can do the same thing with icing in a tube (“writing icing”) or even frosting in a plastic baggie with the tip snipped off.

What You Need: 1 cupcake; white or off-white frosting; green frosting; pastry bag and metal tip #2 or one of the alternatives explained above.

How to Make It: Frost cupcake with white icing. Using the materials described above, pipe or “draw” three hearts arranged in a clover shape. Then add a stem.

For St. Patrick’s Day or anytime you need a bit of good luck, make these easy cupcakes with Lucky Charms cereal on top. They’re magically delicious!

What You Need: 1 cupcake; green frosting; marshmallow shapes from Lucky Charms cereal.

How to Make It: Frost cupcake. Add Lucky Charms cereal. that’s it!

Planning a party for St. Paddy’s Day? Or just taking cupcakes to your kid’s school? Personalize them by writing guests’ or students’ names on each one.

What You Need: 1 cupcake; white frosting; green frosting; pastry bag with couplers and metal tips #5 and #2 or #3. (You could get by with just #3, or icing premade in a tube).

How to Make It: Frost cupcake white. Using pastry bag and #5 metal tip, make three circles to form shamrock in upper left area of cupcake. Switch to #3 or #2 tip and pipe shamrock stem and name.

Use two shades of green to make these St. Patrick’s Day shamrock cupcakes stand out. For a lucky variation, make four-leaf clovers instead!

What You Need: 1 cupcake; green frosting; shredded coconut; green food coloring (liquid dye or paste); pastry bag with coupler and #5 metal tip.

How to Make It: Frost cupcake green. Tint shredded coconut green and sprinkle on top of cupcake. Use pastry bag and metal tip to pipe 3 (or 4) flat circles, plus a stem, to make a clover.

Take a teddy bear and get him wearing the green! Voila, St. Patrick’s Day 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.