Easy Cupcakes

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.

Inspired by a recent article in Family Fun magazine, these cute black-and-white cow cupcakes are a great addition to a barnyard or farm-themed birthday party, ho down, or any cupcake cattle call!

What You Need: 1 cupcake; white frosting; 2 Junior Mints; 1 pick candy wafer; 2 mini brown M&Ms; 2 white jellybeans; black writing icing in tube.

How to Make It: Frost cupcake. Use writing icing to make two dots on pink wafer for nostrils and place near center bottom of cupcake. Place Junior Mints, angled upward, near top of cupcake. Add jellybean horns and mini M&M eyes.

I like this lamb cupcake better than the marshmallow sheep I posted previously. By cutting the mini marshmallows in half (“shearing” the sheep, so to speak), you can make a cupcake that has dimension but isn’t overloaded.

What You Need: 1 cupcake; white frosting; mini marshmallows; 2 brown mini M&Ms; 2 black candy-covered licorice pieces; red gel writing icing; kitchen shears or scissors.

How To Make It: Frost cupcake. Use scissors to cut each marshmallow in half and arrange as shown, circling the entire cupcake and then a couple of rows near the top. Add M&M eyes and licorice legs and then draw in the red mouth with gel icing.

A fuzzy-looking chick cupcake is great for Easter or barnyard parties. This design is very similar to one that ran in Family Fun magazine.

What You Need: 1 cupcake; white or yellow frosting; shaved coconut; yellow dye (liquid, gel or paste); gummy orange slice; chocolate chips; scissors or knife.

How to Make It: Frost cupcake. Tint coconut in a bowl or baggie by adding dye and mixing. Sprinkle on top of cupcake. Use scissors to cut off bit of orange slice and make beak shape. Place on cupcake. Add chocolate chip eyes.

You can easily draw a shamrock to make a St. Patrick’s Day cupcake, thanks to gel icing in a tube!

What You Need: 1 cupcake; green frosting; green gel writing icing.

How to Make It: Frost cupcake green. Use tube to “draw” clover shape. First, draw the outline and then fill in with gel.

All you need is some green icing to draw some hearts and create a clover shape. Don’t worry if you don’t have a pastry bag and metal tip. You can do the same thing with icing in a tube (“writing icing”) or even frosting in a plastic baggie with the tip snipped off.

What You Need: 1 cupcake; white or off-white frosting; green frosting; pastry bag and metal tip #2 or one of the alternatives explained above.

How to Make It: Frost cupcake with white icing. Using the materials described above, pipe or “draw” three hearts arranged in a clover shape. Then add a stem.

Do you have candy hearts left over from Valentine’s Day? Use the green ones to make shamrocks for your St. Patrick’s Day cupcakes! (And if you bought an extra can of green frosting at Christmastime, you’re ahead of the game.)

What You Need: 1 cupcake; white or off-white frosting; 3 candy hearts (Necco, etc.) or four if you want a four-leaf clover; green writing icing with round metal tip or icing in tube; rainbow sprinkles.

How to Make It: Frost cupcake. Arrange hearts in clover shape. Use green icing to “draw” a stem (optional). Sprinkle rim with rainbow sprinkles.