Make-a-Cake Series: Halloween Cupcakes

Directions

1. Prepare your preferred cupcake batter and bake it in Halloween-themed liners.
2. Make a batch of buttercream and color it purple.
3. Pipe the purple buttercream onto the cupcake, add sprinkles, and top with a matching cupcake pick for a cat or spider design.
4. For the brain cupcake, tint buttercream with pink and yellow, then frost the cupcake.
5. Fill a pastry bag with the remaining pink-yellow buttercream, snip the tip, and pipe zigzag lines across the top.
6. For the eyeball cupcake, cover the cupcake with a layer of white fondant.
7. Cut a smaller circle from blue fondant, attach it with water, then add an even smaller white circle. Pipe a dot of black buttercream in the center.
8. Thin red food coloring gel with a little water and paint red veins on the eyeball. Let it dry.
9. For the ghost cupcake, pipe a swirl of buttercream on top.
10. Insert a lollipop through the cupcake so the candy part meets the buttercream.
11. Cut a 5-inch circle of white fondant, drape it over the lollipop, and shape it into a ghost.
12. Pipe two small dots of black buttercream for the ghost's eyes.
13. For the mummy cupcake, cover the cupcake with chocolate or brown buttercream.
14. Cut thin strips of white fondant and lay them across the cupcake, leaving space for eyes.
15. Form two small circles from yellow fondant for eyes, then pipe black dots in the center.