Cake

These cupcakes are made with a combination of ingredients commonly found in a beloved autumn pie—pumpkin, cinnamon, nutmeg, and cloves—and enhanced with brown butter and fresh sage. To cut sage into chiffonade, or very fine strips, stack the leaves, then roll up tightly before slicing thinly crosswise with a sharp knife.

Cupcakes crowned with fondant hearts add charm to any party. The hearts are monogrammed with bride-and-groom initials, but you could also make just one initial for a baby shower, or a birthday or going-away party. You can make the hearts (see page 299 for instructions on working with fondant) up to several months in advance; store at room temperature in an airtight container. You will need a small rolling pin, a two-inch heart-shaped cutter, and new, clean rubber stamps with initials, which can be custom- made (see Sources, page 342).

A chirping trio of newly hatched birds is a charming ode to a baby’s pending arrival (or first birthday). The buttercream bluebirds and coconut nest are perched atop cupcakes frosted with chocolate buttercream.

These cupcakes are made with a triple dose of pistachio: Some nuts are ground to a paste and mixed into the batter; others are chopped and folded in at the end for added texture. Even more nuts are sprinkled on top as a colorful garnish. Slivered pistachios are available at specialty markets and baking-supply stores; if you can’t find them, use chopped pistachios instead.

Buttercream shells and pearls, often seen on grand-scale wedding cakes, are a fresh way to present a classic motif on a batch of cupcakes. The piped designs are among the easiest to achieve—the pearls are merely dots, while the tip does most of the work in creating the shells—and the small scale of the cupcakes means that even beginning pipers will find them achievable. Even so, you may want to practice making shells on parchment paper before piping onto the frosted cupcakes; any mistakes piped onto the cupcakes can also be gently scraped away before you try again.

For Halloween, create silly and scary-looking faces with buttercream, candy, marshmallows, and, of course, cupcakes. Decorating the cakes is a great activity for kids and parents to do together: Set out cupcakes and bowls of colored frostings and assorted candies and let everyone create his or her own aliens, monsters, and beasts.

The batter for these candy-bar-like cupcakes is laden with ground sweetened coconut and pecans; to further enhance their appeal, the cupcakes are dipped in a bittersweet chocolate glaze, then sprinkled with toasted coconut flakes. Creamed coconut, usually sold in jars at natural-food stores or online, differs from “cream of coconut,” which has added sugar and is typically used in cocktails. If you can’t locate creamed coconut, you can use another quarter cup of butter in its place.

Any bride would blush to behold such fanciful cupcakes on her special day. Bakers, too, will relish making the exquisite meringue “flowers,” which are first piped onto parchment-lined baking sheets, then baked until firm and dry. Their crisp, delicate texture makes them a delight to eat.

Although the buttercream chrysanthemums may look difficult, a steady hand and a bit of practice is all it takes to produce a whole bunch of them. Displayed in a group of matching or mixed colors, the cupcakes would be lovely at a bridal or baby shower.

Tiny blue buttercream stars and red-licorice stripes create a patriotic batch of cupcakes to celebrate Independence Day. Festive cupcake liners carry out the theme; see Sources, page 342.

A trio of citrus zests brightens simple cupcakes. The ones pictured are finished with lime-flavored glaze and finely grated lime zest, but lemons or oranges could replace the lime. Or, for a particularly pretty display, divide the glaze into thirds and flavor each portion with a different citrus, with garnishes to match.

Present Dad with a bunch of golf-themed cupcakes, complete with putting greens and sand traps, on his special day. The mini greens are adorned with colored sanding sugar, a candy golf ball, and a ribbon flag; graham-cracker crumbs stand in for sand. You could create an entire course by decorating eighteen cupcakes with different numbered flags, and the remaining six with sand traps.

Celebrate commencement day with a diploma of a different sort: tiny replicas made of airy tuile cookies that are curled around a skewer and neatly tied with strips of sour candy. To make the template for the tuile scroll, use the lid of a plastic storage container.

All the features of a traditional coffee cake—tender cake base, crumbly streusel top, and simple milk-and-sugar glaze—are packed into portable, single-size portions. Try serving them for brunch, or as an after-school snack.

Some say the hummingbird cake, a Southern specialty replete with pineapple chunks, bananas, coconut, and walnuts, earned its name because each otherworldly bite makes you hum with delight. Others hold that the cake is as sweet as the sugared water used to attract the tiny birds. Adorned with dried-pineapple “flowers,” the cupcake variation makes a beautiful presentation for Mother’s Day. To give the flowers a cupped shape (shown opposite), cool them in muffin tins as described on page 323 (instead of on a wire rack, shown below).

There’s no need to perfect your piping skills to create beautiful flower-topped cupcakes. Instead, adorn them with a few fresh, edible flowers. Some of the best-tasting varieties include nasturtiums, pansies, hibiscus, snapdragons, violets, and marigolds (pictured). Use only flowers grown without pesticides, either from your own organic garden or from specialty suppliers. When making the little pound cakes, remember to cream the butter and sugar thoroughly to produce the right texture.

Pound-cake batters bake into especially rich and dense cupcakes, and the traditional recipe can be adapted in many ways to vary the flavor and texture. In this version, brown sugar replaces granulated for a hint of caramel flavor, while buttermilk makes for a more tender crumb than when made with regular milk. Nutty brown-butter icing pairs especially well with these cupcakes, but many other toppings would also work, including brown-sugar cream-cheese frosting (page 310) or whipped cream (page 316).