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Cupcake

Chocolate Peanut Butter Mousse–Filled Cupcakes

These vegan cupcakes are very moist and decadent. The peanut butter filling doubles as a cake filling.

Cocoa-Carrot Cupcakes with White Chocolate Chips

Don't turn up your nose at this strange-sounding combination—carrots, cocoa, and white chocolate is actually a brilliant union.

The Crows

Make the decorations the day before baking This cupcake is inspired by a scene from the movie 28 Days Later, where a crow sits overhead with a piece of zombie corpse in his mouth. We've chosen a deathly pale skin color, but you can vary the color of the fondant to create different flesh tones. The jam and fondant topping contrasts with the subtle flavor of the white velvet cupcake. If you use toothpicks to secure the crows, remember to tell your guests.

Zombies Rising

Take a close look at the graveyard, and you might see a zombie rising from the dead—if you see a rotting hand reaching out from underground, you can be sure the rest of the zombie will soon follow. They're coming to get you… This delectable mud cupcake gives you a taste of the grave from the zombie's perspective. Remember to warn your guests that the hand is secured using a toothpick.

Triple Chocolate Cupcakes

Dark, milk, and white chocolate chips are sprinkled throughout this rich chocolate cupcake. For a more sophisticated version, use only dark chocolate chips. Guaranteed to fulfill your daily chocolate craving.

Strawberry Cupcakes

My younger son loves these cupcakes and calls them Strawberry Spongecakes. These pink-flecked pleasers are best made at the height of strawberry season.

Key Lime Pudding Cakes

Pudding cakes are little culinary marvels. Take what is basically a thin cake batter, fold in whipped egg whites, put the batter into a baking dish (or several ramekins as I do here), and voilà! As it bakes, the batter separates and forms a sponge cake on the top with a thick, kind of custardy pudding on the bottom. Lemon pudding cakes are common in the South, but I've swapped lemon for Key lime juice. To coat the insides of the ramekins with sugar, grease them with nonstick cooking spray or butter, put 1 tablespoon sugar in one, and then tilt and turn it around, tapping to coat all the inside surfaces. Tap the excess sugar into the next ramekin and repeat the process until all are dusted, adding more sugar as needed.

Ganache-Filled Chocolate Cupcakes with Seven-Minute Meringe Frosting

About seven minutes of beating is all it takes to turn water, sugar, egg whites, and cream of tartar into a fluffy, soft marshmallowy frosting.

Golden Eggs

Red Velvet Cupcakes with Mascarpone Cream Cheese Icing

Although legend has it that the red velvet cake originated in the early 1900s at New York City's Waldorf Astoria Hotel, it's been a Southern favorite for as long as I can remember. (A friend of mine recently reported seeing a version of it at a Starbucks in Mississippi.) Years ago, I made an armadillo-shaped red velvet cake for a wedding couple, complete with gray cream cheese icing for the animal's shell and scales. The idea may have come from the popular 1989 movie Steel Magnolias, which featured a red velvet armadillo groom's cake, a popular Southern tradition that continues to this day. The inspiration for my red velvet cupcakes came from my high-school boyfriend's grandmother. My mother was quite ill during those years, so I spent a lot of time with Bob Yarborough's family. His Birmingham, Alabama–born grandmother cooked and baked frequently, and I never forgot her red velvet cake. I wrote the instructions in my high-school recipe notebook and used it as a guide for developing these cupcakes. The mint extract and crushed mint candies add bit of holiday flair, but easily can be left out at other times of the year.

Pumpkin Pie Cupcakes

Consider these "beauty" bites: They offer up 26 percent of your daily dose of vitamin A, which keeps skin and hair healthy.

Brown Sugar-Pecan Cupcakes with Caramel Frosting

Cupcakes for Thanksgiving? Why not? These treats pair tender cake with a salty-caramely frosting.

Mini Halloween Pumpkin Cupcakes

Kid-size and super-easy to make, these Halloween cupcakes are the perfect festive treats for the holiday.

Lemon Pudding Filled Coconut Cupcakes with Shaved Coconut Topping

My biggest challenge to date has been making cupcakes for a six-year-old's birthday party. This recipe, the result of many trials and taste My biggest challenge to date has been making cupcakes for a six-year-old’s birthday party. This recipe, the result of many trials and taste tests, was a huge hit with the kids, who are always our toughest fans. Packed with coconut for electrolytes, lemon juice for vitamin C, and bananas for potassium, these little gems keep us feeling great.

Vegan, Gluten-Free Vanilla Cupcakes

These cakes are delicate and golden, tasting subtly of vanilla with a faint hint of lemon.

Coconut Cupcakes with White Chocolate Frosting

Editor's note: The recipe below is from Kimberly Kennedy's The Art and Craft of Entertaining. For Kennedy's baby shower tips click here.

Vanilla Bean-Coconut Cupcakes with Coconut Frosting

The secret to these moist cupcakes? Reduced coconut milk.

Chocolate Cream Cheese Cupcakes

Individual Grape and Vin Santo Cakes

In these tender, elegant cakes, the Italian dessert wine Vin Santo contributes intoxicating flavor that's played up by the addition of plump grapes.
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