Easy Cupcakes

This cupcake, a variation on a Wilton design, is quick and easy to make using basic decorating tips and tinted icing.

What You Need: 1 cupcake (baked and cooled); chocolate frosting; white icing; icing bag and round metal tip such as 2 or 3 (or just use prefilled tubes and plastic tip set from the grocery store.) We used pink M&Ms for the cheeks, but you could use pink icing or candies instead.
How to Make It: Frost cupcake. Use white icing and tip to pipe hair curl, eyes, nose and mouth. Add pink M&Ms for cheeks. If you don’t have pink M&Ms, using pink icing. Pipe a circle by squeezing the bag while keeping the round tip (size 2 or 3 would work) in the icing and be sure to stop squeezing before you pull away.

What could be easier than placing M&Ms on a cupcake in the shape of a wreath?

What You Need: 1 cupcake (baked and cooled); chocolate frosting; green and red M&Ms.
How to Make It: Frost cupcake. Arrange green M&Ms, flat, on the cupcake to make a wreath circle. Then place 2 red M&Ms on end next to each other for a bow.

Just as every snowflake in nature is unique, so it can be for your next batch of cupcakes. Have fun experimenting with different designs and colors. Maybe even add some sprinkles, or Wilton Cake Sparkles.

What You Need: 1 cupcake (baked and cooled); icing tinted light blue; white frosting in decorating bag and round tip 1, 2 or 3 (or just use a commercially made tube of writing icing).
How to Make It: Frost cupcake blue. Using fluid motions and even pressure, pipe snowflake shapes onto cupcake. It’s easiest if, for each “line” in your design, you lightly touch the tip to the surface of the cupcake, pull away as you gently squeeze the length of the line, and touch the tip down again to reattach. Be sure to stop squeezing before you pull away.

This clever reindeer cupcake is adapted from an idea from Kraft foods that uses a chocolate sandwich cookie for the reindeer head.

What You Need: 1 cupcake (baked and cooled); chocolate frosting; cookie such as Oreo (we used Trader Joe’s Candy Cane JoJo’s); cinnamon imperial (“red hot”); 2 mini pretzels; candy eyes or white and black writing icing.
How to Make It: Frost cupcake with chocolate icing. Cut cookie carefully into wedge shape as shown and place on top of cupcake. Position pretzels behind cookie for antlers. Use dab of icing to stick on red hot Rudolph nose and do the same with candy eyes (or use white and black writing icing).

Half the fun of these Christmas tree cupcakes is “trimming” your tree with sprinkles, icing and more.

What You Need: 1 cupcake (baked and cooled); icing tinted light green and green; white writing icing (or pastry bag and round tip); star tip #16 or purchased tube with decorating tip attachment; round and star confetti.
How to Make It: Frost cupcake light green. Using pastry bag or tube with star tip, pipe stars in a tree shape. Remember to stop squeezing before you pull the tip away for the best stars! Use white writing icing and various sprinkles to decorate your tree.

Buy a plastic deer from a cake decorating shop or just score one from the toy store’s plastic animal aisle.

What You Need: 1 cupcake (baked and cooled); white icing; marshmallow tree; plastic deer.
How to Make It: Frost cupcake white. You can use a decorating bag and tip or a plain old knife to make snowdrifts. Place marshmallow tree and plastic deer and you’re done!

This Rudolph the Red-nosed Reindeer gets his shiny nose from a gumdrop and his antlers from mini pretzels.

What You Need: 1 cupcake (baked and cooled); chocolate frosting; 2 blue mini M&Ms; red gumdrop; 2 mini pretzels.
How to Make It: Frost cupcake. Add gumdrop nose and M&M eyes. Break mini pretzels to look like antlers and poke into cupcake. That’s it!