Easy Cupcakes

Use a pastry bag to make cute little ghosts that perch atop your Halloween cupcakes!

What You Need: 1 cupcake; green frosting; Halloween sprinkles; 2 brown mini M&Ms, white frosting; pastry bag; round metal tip (I used #5).

How to Make It: Frost cupcake green. Use pastry bag to pipe ghost in a swirly motion. Add M&M eyes. Add sprinkles.

You don’t have to be a zombie to have a taste for brains on Halloween. Or at least brain cupcakes. I’ve seen variations on this creepy cupcake idea in which the “brains” are mini marshmallows and the blood is icing rather than gel. Yum!

What You Need: 1 cupcake; chocolate frosting; white frosting; red gel writing icing; pastry bag and round metal tip (I used #5).

How to Make It: Frost cupcake with chocolate icing. Using pastry bag fitted with #5 tip, make two groups of circles (remember to stop squeezing the icing bag before you pull up or you’ll get little peaks). For each hemisphere of the brain, I made an inside row of four circles and an outside row of three. Then, drizzle red gel for oozing blood. Happy Halloween!

These Frankenstein cupcakes (or, for you literary sticklers, Frankenstein’s monter) are more sweet than spooky. You can use thick or thin stick pretzels for the “bolts.”

What You Need: 1 cupcake; frosting tinted green; 1 piece of candy corn; 1 mini marshmallow; 1 stick pretzel; purple writing icing; green food-safe marker; scissors or knife.

How to Make It: Frost cupcake. Use purple writing icing to scribble hair at top of cupcake. Break pretzel in half and stick one end on each side of head for bolts. Cut marshmallow in half and use food-safe market to draw eyeball on each. Place eyes and candy corn nose on Frankenstein’s face.

These cat cupcakes are ready for Halloween with their angled candy corn eyes!

What You Need: 1 cupcake; chocolate frosting; black string licorice; 2 pieces candy corn; 2 Junior Mints; 1 red hot (cinnamon imperial).

How to Make It: Frost cupcake. Cut off 1/3 of each Junior Mint and stick near top of cupcake for kitty ears. Add red hot nose and candy corn eyes. Cut four lengths of string licorice for whiskers.

These vampire cupcakes are an easy way to put some “bite” in your Halloween festivities. (sorry!!)

What You Need: 1 cupcake; icing tinted green; black string licorice; white icing in pastry bag or tube with round tip; purple writing icing; 2 brown mini M&Ms.

How to Make It: Frost cupcake. Add M&M eyes and curve length of licorice of mouth. Use pastry bag or tube to pipe triangle-shaped teeth. With purple writing icing, draw hairline shape for widow’s peak like Dracula.

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!

The yellow eyes and menacing teeth are the finishing touches on this creepy and cute furry werewolf cupcake.

What You Need: 1 cupcake; chocolate frosting; chocolate sprinkles; 2 Lemonhead candies; 3 black jellybeans; 5 white Tic Tacs; black food-safe marker.

How to Make It: Frost cupcake. Immediately sprinkle with chocolate sprinkles (they stick best if you do it right away). Use food-safe marker to draw on yellow eyeballs. Add jellybean nose and ears. Finish with white Tic Tac teeth!