Easy Cupcakes

Lion cupcake

What You Need: 1 cupcake; yellow frosting (I used Pillsbury Spring frosting in a can); pastry bag and metal star tip, or use icing in a tube; 1 light pink and 2 dark pink jelly beans; chocolate sprinkles; 2 small green candies (these are by CakeMate, in the grocery store’s cake decorating section.)

How to Make It: Frost cupcake. Use star tip to pipe long stars around the edge of the cupcake, and then repeat farther inward on the cupcake. Don’t stop squeezing as you pull away, so the ends of the stars will have pointy tips. Place pink nose, green eyes and 4 chocolate sprinkles for face. Add 2 dark pink jelly beans for ears.

Turtle cupcake

What You Need: 1 cupcake; green frosting; 2 green sugar-coated fruit gel candies; 6 green M&Ms; black food-safe marker; scissors.

How to Make It: Frost cupcake. Use food-safe marker to draw two dots on one gel candy for eyes and place near edge of cupcake. Use scissors to cut other gel into five triangular pieces, with one of the pieces being thinner for the tail. Arrange as pictured. Add M&Ms.

Bear cupcake

What You Need: 1 cupcake; white or off-white frosting; 2 Nilla Wafers; 1 Junior Mint; 2 black or dark brown M&Ms; knife.

How to Make It: Frost cupcake. Place Nilla wafer cookie toward bottom of cupcake for muzzle. Use dab of icing to adhere Junior Mint nose about 2/3 from bottom of cookie muzzle. Add M&M eyes. Cut another Nilla Wafer in half and place halves at top for ears.

Nutter Butter monkey cupcake

What You Need: 1 cupcake; chocolate frosting; Nilla wafer; blue M&Ms; food-safe pen; red writing icing; 1 Nutter Butter cookie; knife.

How to Make It: Frost cupcake. Cut Nutter Butter in half. Cut off 1/2 of Nilla wafer. Use food-safe pen to draw two nostrils near flat edge of Nilla wafer. Use red gel or writing icing to draw mouth and place on cupcake. Add M&M eyes. Add half of Nilla wafer to each side of face for ears.

Sunflower cupcake

What You Need: 1 cupcake; yellow frosting (I used Pillsbury’s Spring frosting from a can); 3 brown M&Ms; candy spearmint leaf; scissors; pastry bag with coupler and star tip, or use tubed icing with tip.

How to Make It: Frost cupcake. Use pastry bag or tube to make concentric rows of stars, working from the rim of the cupcake inward. As you pipe the stars, don’t stop squeezing as you pull away, so they form nice peaks. Leave small area not frosted in center of cupcake and add three M&Ms. Cut spearmint leaf in half or thirds (so it’s lighter and you can use it on two cupcakes) and place on edge of cupcake.

Giraffe cupcake

What You need: 1 cupcake; yellow frosting; 2 thin pretzel sticks, 2 puffy cereal pieces (such as Cocoa Puffs or Kix); 1 pink Necco wafer; thin black licorice or black writing icing; 2 mini chocolate M&Ms; food-safe pens. (Instead of pens, you can try writing icing.)

How to Make It: Frost cupcake. Use dab of icing to attach puffy cereal to tips of pretzels. (You may want to cut the pretzels to make them shorter.) Let dry for a bit. Use food-safe pen to draw nostrils and mouth on Necco wafer. Arrange 6 licorice strands (or draw 6 lines with writing icing) for stripes and place wafer on top of them. Add M&M eyes. Insert pretzel horns.

Dragonfly cupcake

What You Need: 1 cupcake; green frosting; assorted candies such as jellybeans, Jordan almonds and candy-covered mints; food-safe pens.

How to Make It: Frost cupcake. Arrange candies on top. For dragonfly shown, make row of three pink jellybeans and position yellow Jordan almonds on each side for wings. Draw 2 black “eyes” on round candy and add for face.