Creative Cupcakes

Cupcakes may be even better than layer cakes, because they are easy to serve, fun to decorate, and cute as a button. Regular or mini, cupcakes are always welcome.

Below are some ideas for cupcake decorating. I found many of them on the Wilton website. While the recipes there are not always good, I do like the Wilton site for ideas. You can also order things online like printed cupcake liners and seasonal sugar decorations for those times when you are in a hurry. The liners I used on the cupcake at left are a Wilton product, although I found them at the local Kroger in the seasonal section.

There are other cupcake sites - just Google "cupcake decorating ideas" and you'll find several, some with recipes and others with inspirational photos. You are limited only by your imagination.

The "spiderweb" technique I demonstrated a few posts ago would be an ideal Halloween cupcake decoration, and if I get a chance I'll show you how cute. You could then make a spider from dark-tinted icing or from licorice strips. It would be great to bring to your favorite Halloween bash. The carrot-cake cupcakes from a few posts ago are great fall treats too.

Another idea not pictured is to make a stencil of a leaf using waxed or heavy paper (even I, a dedicated non-drawing person, can make an outline of a leaf), and sprinkle powdered sugar or cocoa powder mixed with a little powdered sugar, on a cupcake. A cream cheese icing would pair well with a cocoa/powdered sugar mixture on a chocolate cupcake.

The recipe for the cupcake and icing at the top can be found in my article for the Charleston Gazette, published October 1, 2008.

Happy Cupcake Baking!

Clockwise from top left: white chocolate chips melted and squeezed from a Ziploc bag; a butterfly squeezed onto waxed paper with the same white chocolate, then refrigerated and placed on the chocolate icing; edible glitter; powdered sugar sprinkled through a stencil.