Halloween Cupcakes - Pumpkins

What says Halloween more than Pumpkins?  I make cupcakes in the shape of pumpkins that are pretty simple to do.  There are several steps, but do not confuse time with difficulty. 

What you need:

Cupcakes
White or vanilla icing
Orange food coloring or Wilton Orange food coloring gel
Orange Wilton Sparkle gel
Green M & Ms or green licorice or green Starburst candy or green soft Jolly Rancher candy
Orange Sparkles from Wilton (for eating)

How to do it:

Make your favorite cupcakes and cool.

Make your icing.  Take your icing and dye it orange.  I prefer the Wilton gel, it gives a much stronger color and does not make the icing runny.

Ice the cupcakes.

Sprinkle the cupcakes with the orange sparkles.  You can skip this if you want, it still looks good with plain icing. I do this in a bowl to contain the mess.

Use the sparkle gel to make lines on the pumpkin.  Start in the middle and work your way out. 

Add gel to make the lines of the pumpkin

 Add the stem.  Use any green candy.  I had M & Ms on hand so I used those.  You can also take green licorice and cut it into small pieces and place them in the top.  Or green Starburst or Green soft Jolly Ranchers cut into small piece to make a stem. No matter what you do, just add it to the center of the orange lines.

Yummy!!

This is made with Dots candy for the stem.