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Living Well Mom

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Back to School Cupcakes Recipe

By in Desserts

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Can you believe back to school season is upon us already? Some of your kids have already started but for us, school begins in less than 2 weeks. This week, I wanted to make a special treat for the kids. But, like many of you, I didn’t have time to do super fancy, yet still wanted something fun. So I thought of this simple Back to School Cupcakes idea.

a cupcake that looks like apples

It’s not as fancy as it sounds or looks. Which is exactly what I wanted. In this busy time of year, who has time for complicated treats that are going to be gobbled up in seconds anyways?

cupcakes that look like apples

Here’s the quick version of this recipe.

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Back to School Apple Cupcakes

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Ingredients

Scale
  • boxed cake mix + required ingredients (usually oil, water, eggs)
  • buttercream or vanilla frosting
  • if desired, a tube of Cake Mate green frosting
  • food color(I recommend Americolor for rich, deep colors)
  • 6–12 tootsie rolls

Instructions

  1. Mix up the cake mix as directed and spoon into 24 regular-sized, paper-lined muffin cups. Bake according to package directions for cupcakes.
  2. Cool completely.
  3. For the frosting – make your favorite buttercream frosting or use the canned variety. The canned variety probably won’t look as pretty, but it’s easier. Save a small portion to tint green for the leaves (you won’t need much) or you can go the easy way and buy a tube of Cake Mate green frosting. Your choice.
  4. Frost the cupcakes with red. Cut the tootsie rolls into small piece and roll into the shape of a stem. Put those in the center of the cupcakes, then pipe in green “leaves.”
  5. Enjoy!

 

a close up of a cupcake that looks like apples

When it comes to food color, I can  never say enough about how awesome the AmeriColor food color is. It provides such deep, rich colors and a little goes a long ways. You could never get these colors with regular food color from Target. Totally awesome.

frosting in a bowl with food dye being added

Want to do really simple? Just frost with a knife.

frosting a cupcake

Or you can use a decorator’s bag and tip, like I did for the rest of our cupcakes. (I can never resist a bit of decorating! I just wish I had more time for it!)

frosting cupcakes

For the green food coloring, you can make your own or buy a Cake Mate icing tube. Your own will taste better (personally I don’t like the taste of Cake Mate) but Cake Mate is much quicker.  In this case, I bought the icing when I was still figuring out how to work these cupcakes, but ended up using my own green frosting as you can see here:

icing

Don’t forget that frosting colors will deepen overnight, so if it’s not quite as green as you’d like, you’re probably still okay. See the above frosting in the bowl? It’s lighter than this photo below.

a close up of a cupcake that looks like an apple

You can get the kids involved with rolling the tootsie rolls and putting them on the cupcakes.

A close up of cupcakes that look like an apple

layout of printable recipe binder pages

My children totally loved these Back to School Cupcakes. I was happy they were a hit, yet I didn’t have to spend hours making them. It’s win-win in my book!


 Like this recipe? Please click the “Pin It” button on top so others can see it too! Thank you!

About Erika

Erika Bragdon is a flower essence practitioner and a second-generation homeschooling mom with 3 kids at home and 1 in college. She enjoys her chickens, goats, and gardening on a small farm in New Hampshire, and is passionate about sharing flower essences and more ways to renew body, mind, and soul with moms.

Comments

  3. Saph says

    Those are so cool! Such a cool idea with the tootsie rolls! Wish I could reach through my computer and grab one! LOL

  8. Holly (Woman Tribune) says

    Wow, those cupcakes look incredible. Perfect for back-to-school, and even more perfect considering that they didn’t take you hours to make and weren’t a chore to decorate. Thanks for the recipe, I love this!

  9. Donna says

    I love these!! How did you get the frosting so red without it tasting bitter? When I make mine that red it always has a bitter taste and I use the americolor food color.

    • Erika says

      Thanks, Donna! That’s really strange that it tastes bitter when you use it. I’ve had issues with other brands, but never Americolor. Do you think maybe you had a bad batch?

      • Zene says

        It’s a genetic thing, some people can taste the red food coloring, some can’t, it’s likely from one of your parents 🙂

        These are darn cute! I’m pinning now!

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