Cute and Delicious Halloween Cupcakes

My eldest's birthday falls just a few days before Halloween. If she is anything like her mother, Halloween will be her very favorite holiday. I imagine, however, that there will be few birthdays she is excited to share with ghosts, spiders and pumpkins.

This year she was excited to do just that, and a Halloween theme was chosen. Friends were thrilled to come in costume and Halloween activities were enjoyed.

Instead of cake I opted to create these super cute Halloween cupcakes I saw in Woman's Day. These were incredibly easy to make; the girls loved helping - and sneaking bits of candy!

All cupcakes begin with a cupcake base. We chose a white cake as it wouldn't clash with any topping flavors.

What you need for the spider: white frosting, Mallomar (we found a generic at Fareway), Tootsie Roll midgees, M&Ms and M&Ms Minis.

To do: Top cupcake with white frosting. Cut Tootsie Roll into 8 small pieces. Soften and roll between your hands to create legs. Place legs on cupcake, hanging down sides. Place Mallomar on top o legs. Use a tiny bit of frosting to make M&Ms stick.

What you need for the ghost: white frosting, M&Ms Premiums Mint Chocolate (if you have trouble finding these chocolate rocks would look nice, too). White fondant. Doughnut hole. Mini M&Ms.

To do: Top cupcake with white frosting. Place M&Ms mint chocolates (or chocolate rocks) around the edge of the cupcake. Roll fondant to 1/8" thickness. Use a large cup to cut into a circle (4"-5" diameter). Place over doughnut. Use a bit of frosting to attach mini M&Ms eyes.

What you need for the pumpkin: green frosting (or green food color and white frosting), orange frosting (or mix red and yellow food color with white frosting), fall leaves sprinkles (mine came in a jar of 6 different sprinkles made by Wilton), doughnut hole, green apple Airhead candy.

To do: cover doughnut holes in orange frosting and refrigerate (this will make them a bit easier to handle). Frost cupcake with green frosting. Sprinkle with fall leaves. Using a small pizza cutter, cut small triangles and thin strips from green apple Airheads. Roll strips btween you hands to create vines. Top cupcake with orange doughnut. Place vines and stem on top.

I snapped the image below with my phone while at the library, but didn't get the instructions, so we just guessed at how to do some things. I think our creations turned out adorable and the girls were very impressed!

We opted not to make the vampire. Click the image to see it larger to get the list of what you need. I think construction is really self explanatory.