Easy Cupcakes

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.

It’s the first ever “guest cupcakes” post on EasyCupcakes.com! Emily K. and her kids had a blast making and decorating these fishbowl-themed cupcakes. Thanks for sharing them, Emily!

What You Need: 1 cupcake; white frosting; frosting tinted blue; gummi fish (Swedish fish); Nerds candies; green fruit rolls; scissors or butter knife.

How to Make It: Frost cupcake with a thin layer of white icing. Let dry for a bit. Frost all but about a half-inch area at the top of the cupcake with blue icing so it looks like water in a bowl. Put a bunch of colorful Nerds candies near the bottom of the “bowl” for gravel. Cut fruit roll into long pieces like aquarium plants, folding some over at the top. Add your fish!