Cupcake Designs for Kids

Most kids don't need a reason to love cupcakes. With their individual servings and creative decorations, cupcakes are designed to delight almost anyone -- especially children. Instead of making a cake for your child's next party, consider creating a batch of fanciful cupcakes. The whimsical designs will be a hit with the younger crowd, and cleanup will be easier with no forks needed. Add this to my Recipe Box.

Spooky Spiders

Whether it's Halloween or your kid just loves creepy crawly things, a spider cupcake is sure to please. Frost cupcakes with dark chocolate frosting and cover them with chocolate sprinkles. Place two round licorice allsorts in the front for eyes. Cut eight 4-inch pieces of black shoestring licorice for legs. Bend the legs in half and stick four on each side so that they bend downward and one end touches the ground.

Popcorn

Make special cupcakes for movie night. Frost cupcakes with white icing. Snip the bottom of miniature marshmallows into an X design to make them puff up into a popcorn shape. Stick the marshmallow popcorn pieces all over the cupcakes. Dilute yellow food coloring with water and paint it on here and there to simulate butter on the popcorn. Cut red- and white-striped paper into strips and wrap each cupcake body in a striped paper strip, to look as if they were in a popcorn bag.

Worms and Dirt

For the little ones who love to dig in the yard, let them dig in their dessert. Cover chocolate cupcakes with dark chocolate icing. Crush Oreo cookies to create crumbs that look like dirt. Sprinkle the dirt all over the cupcake tops and stick gummy worms into the dirt, allowing part of the worm to hang out over the edge of the cupcake.

Ice Cream Cones

Fill flat-bottomed ice cream cones 2/3 of the way with cake batter and stand them up in muffin tins for stability. Bake them in the oven according to the directions for cupcakes. Frost your cake cones with a swirl of icing, cover them with sprinkles and finish with a cherry on top.