Candy Cupcake Ideas

Children love yummy gooey cupcakes, but for a new twist on an old favorite, you can create cupcakes made from candy. Plastic, rubber and metal candy molds in the shape of cupcakes or peanut butter cups will yield candies that resemble cupcakes. Purchase little paper or foil baking cups intended for peanut butter cup candies and complete the illusion of miniature cupcakes that are made from candy. Traditional cake cupcakes can also be decorated with various candies and presented in paper or foil baking cups. Add this to my Recipe Box.

Molded Sugar

Sugar combined with water and meringue powder is used to create sugar skulls and the popular molded sugar Easter eggs sold every spring. When decorated with royal icing, molded sugar can also be used to create candy cupcakes. Press the molded sugar into plastic peanut butter cup molds and scrape the top so it is level. When the molded sugar has hardened, create the cupcake top with royal icing. Royal icing is made from confectioner's sugar and meringue powder and dries to a very hard consistency. Meringue powder can be purchased at specialty baking shops, some grocery and craft stores or ordered through online supply stores.

Solid Chocolate

You can make candy cupcakes from chocolate. Use semi-sweet chocolate chips or bars mixed with light corn syrup or use milk chocolate chips or bars to form the "cupcake" in a plastic, rubber or metal candy mold in the shape of peanut butter cups. Melt the chocolate in a double boiler over low heat. Melted chocolate can be poured directly into molds or it can be poured into miniature paper baking cups intended for peanut butter cup candy to give the illusion of a tiny cupcake. Melted chocolate sets up in about two hours, but putting the molds into the freezer can speed up the finish. Frost the rounded top of the candy cupcake with colored icing. You can use squeeze tubes or canned icing to form a rounded cupcake top.

Marzipan

Throughout history, marzipan has been used to create beautiful decorations on desserts and used alone in table centerpieces. Marzipan is formed from a paste of ground almonds, egg whites, almond extract and salt. This sweet almond-flavored paste can be molded into shapes and painted with gel or paste food coloring. You can add food coloring to the marzipan and mold it to resemble tiny cupcakes. Insert dried marzipan candy cupcakes into miniature paper or foil baking cups.

Cupcakes with Candy Decorations

You can also decorate traditional cake cupcakes with various types of candy. Frost chocolate cupcakes with green icing and sprinkle with coconut shreds dyed green with green food coloring. Place gummy candy worms on top to make a candy-decorated child's worm-in-the-grass cupcake. Gumdrops, hard candies, red hots, peppermints, chocolate chips, chocolate shavings, and candy-coated chocolates can be used to top a frosted cupcake or to form borders around the cupcake's edges.