Easy Halloween Cupcakes

I think that having a birthday on the last day of September means I’m usually a little late to start thinking about Halloween. (um, costume ideas, anyone?!) But after a day of rain and surprisingly chilly weather, I finally feel like it’s October!

Meanwhile, thanks to a super sweet birthday party thrown by my husband, we’ve been snacking on leftover cupcakes for the past few days. (More party details soon!) In my new-found autumnal mood, I decided to decorate the rest of the cupcakes for Halloween and, somehow, managed to find everything I needed already in the pantry! (This hardly ever happens to me, but I love when it does.)

Spider web cupcakes (or frosted cookies for that matter) are super simple. Start with a plain frosted cupcake, like this yellow one with salted caramel frosting.

Using a tube of black icing (mine is a sparkly gel), draw a small circle in the center of the cupcake. Then draw two additional concentric circles. They don’t need to be perfect — it’s a web!

Gently drag a toothpick from the center of the cupcake to the outside edge to create the web effect. Repeat this several times around the cupcake, using a clean toothpick for each line.

And just when you thought it couldn’t get easier — the tombstone cupcake! Use a knife to gently break a graham cracker into quarters, and to slightly round the cracker corners, if you like. Then write RIP in the same black icing you used for the spider webs. Cut a slit in the top of the cupcake.

Stick the graham cracker in the cupcake and you’re done!

For more variety, color some of the frosting orange, and use sprinkles or write “BOO” on a few of the cupcakes. With just a few ingredients, a batch of box cupcakes is ready for a party!