Easy Cupcakes

These pirate flag cupcakes use Wilton’s cupcake liners and flags, and are a quick way to complete the perfect pirate party. Little (and big) swashbucklers will love them. Also great for a Pirates of the Caribbean party or grownups’ event.

What You Need: 1 cupcake; white frosting; Wilton cupcake liner and flag (sold in a set); chocolate sprinkles; pastry bag, 1M metal tip.

How to Make It: Use tip to make 1M swirl (squeeze steadily in concentric circles, starting at the rim of the cupcake and working inward and upward). Sprinkle with chocolate jimmies. Plant pirate flag on top.

One of the parents in my son’s kindergarten class made these awesome dragon cupcakes for her son’s birthday. (They could also be dinosaur cupcakes, with spikes for a stegosaurus, etc. Or, pair them with pirate cupcakes for an all-out boy theme.) She told me she used two different metal tips: a larger one to “flow” the dragon’s body and a smaller one. (Remember, multi-opening tip #233 is great for making animal hair or grass.) Consider a from-scratch icing recipe, because homemade icing is often thicker and easier to control than canned frosting.

What You Need: 1 cupcake; white frosting; frosting tinted green; frosting tinted yellow; frosting tinted black (or premade in tube); metal tips; pastry bags; couplers.

How to Make It: Frost cupcake white. Use large metal tip to “flow” green icing in shape of dragon. Taper off at tail by reducing the pressure as you squeeze. Pipe yellow points for spikes and two yellow dots for eyes. Add black pupils to eyes.

My son was invited to a birthday party at a movie theater, and the mom had made these great popcorn cupcakes. The technique is similar to that seen in the Hello, Cupcake! book and Family Fun magazine: Snip mini marshmallows in half (or leave a few intact) and arrange on top of a cupcake that you’ve wrapped in popcorn bag paper. You can even drizzle yellow frosting “butter” on them if you’d like. What a great theme!

What You Need: 1 cupcake; white frosting; mini marshmallows; printer paper; transparent tape, popcorn artwork (Google!).

How to Make It: Frost cupcake. Wrap cupcake with popcorn-themed wrapper. Secure with tape. Arrange marshmallows to look like popcorn.

These simple stars make the swirls on this cupcake stand out. Serve these at birthday party or any celebration.

What You Need: 1 cupcake; white frosting; metal 1M swirl tip and pastry bag; large “confetti” star sprinkles (These are by Wilton).

How to Make It: Use pastry bag and 1M tip to make swirl. Sprinkle, or strategically place, stars on the cupcake. That’s it!

When you want the look of an ice cream sundae but the taste of a cupcake, try these! Put a real cherry on top, or a candy one.

What You Need: 1 cupcake; white frosting; chocolate sprinkles; cherry; 1M swirl metal tip and pastry bag (no coupler needed).

How to Make It: Use 1M swirl tip to cover cupcake, making one continuous circle shape that gets progressively smaller (moving inward on the cupcake) and ends in a point at the top. Add chocolate sprinkles and cherry.

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.

I used a few shortcuts to make these clown cupcakes quick and easy. I didn’t feel like mixing up icing, or even tinting frosting from a can, so I attached a star tip to Wilton icing in a tube and used that. Also, you could pipe a red mouth, but I just used licorice.

What You Need: 1 cupcake; white frosting; yellow icing in a tube; metal or plastic star tip and coupler; cherry or sour red candy balls; heart-shaped red hots (cinnamon imperials); 2 lime Runts (or other candy); red licorice.

How to Make It: Frost cupcake white. Use star tip and yellow icing with star tip to “draw” hair. Add 2 red hots with points facing inward for bows (You could also use red Runts; they are kind of heart-shaped). Place 2 lime Runts for eyes and a red cherry or sour ball for nose. Add strand of red licorice for mouth. Remember, you don’t have to have these exact candies–just use what you have on hand!