Easy Cupcakes

I just can’t stop making reindeer cupcakes! I’m out of control! This version of Rudolph, great for Christmas parties, uses chocolate covered pretzels for the antlers. If you have trouble with your antlers flopping over (poor reindeer!), you can stabilize them with toothpicks, but take them out before giving to children.

What You Need: 1 cupcake; milk chocolate frosting; chocolate-covered pretzels such as Flipz; 2 black or dark brown M&Ms; cherry sour ball.

How to Make It: Frost cupcake. Stick pretzels into cupcake (you may want to cut little slits for them). Add eyes and nose.

When someone gave me these white chocolate-covered pretzels at a party last weekend, my first thought was, “Yeah! Cupcakes!” Chocolate pretzels make great butterflies any time of the year.

What You Need: 1 cupcake; pink frosting (I used strawberry flavored in a can); 2 chocolate-covered pretzels in Valentine colors; black writing icing.

How to Make It: Frost cupcake pink. Position pretzels like butterfly wings. Use black icing to “draw” antennae between the wings.