Make It Easy, Cupcake!: Fabulously Fun Creations in 4 Simple Steps

by Alan Richardson, Karen Tack

Overview

From the bestselling authors of Hello, Cupcake! and Cake My Day! comes a collection of brand new, completely irresistible cupcake designs—all of which can be made in just 4 steps!

Let Karen Tack and Alan Richardson show you how to make the most inventive cupcakes—for any imaginable occasion—using easy, everyday ingredients (and tools) from your own pantry or grocery store. The 100+ recipes in Make it Easy, Cupcake will allow you to transform marshmallows into blooming daffodils and wafer cookies into airplane wings, use jelly beans for dragonflies and chocolate cookies as bat wings, and countless other ideas for creative cupcake confections. . .all in four easy steps.

Start with a batch of plain cupcakes (made from scratch or store-bought) and follow the authors' illustrated instructions for decoration. Each recipe includes a complete list of ingredients and simple HOW-TOs along with color photos illustrating each step. From baby buggies to hot-air balloons, gingerbread men to the Loch Ness Monster, this is the go-to resource for the most creative, crowd-pleasing cupcakes ideas of all time. Enjoy!

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781250139399
Publisher:	St. Martin's Publishing Group
Publication date:	06/19/2018
Pages:	240
Sales rank:	658,610
Product dimensions:	8.50(w) x 8.40(h) x 0.50(d)

About the Author

Called “the cake whisperer” by Gourmet, KAREN TACK is a cooking teacher and food stylist. Her work can be seen on the covers of Gourmet, Bon Appétit, Good Housekeeping, Family Circle, Woman’s Day, Martha Stewart Living, Parents, Real Simple, Nick Jr., and many others.

Fellow creator ALAN RICHARDSON has photographed dozens of best-selling cookbooks, and his work appears in many leading food and women’s magazines. He is the coauthor of The Breath of a Wok, which won two coveted awards from the International Association of Culinary Professionals.

Table of Contents

Chapter One: Everyday Candy Bash

Candyful cupcakes for events big and small!

Candy-droids

Candy Robot Cupcakes

Backyard BBQ

Baked Beans

Hot Dogs

Sliders

Cole Slaw

Bloomin’ beautiful!

Pink Magnolia Cupcakes

Cherry Blossom Cupcakes

Marshmallow Daffodils

Start your engines!

Cookie Biplanes

Beetle Bugs

Swan Lake

Marshmallow Swans

Strawberry Ballerinas

Balloon Art

Party Balloons

Hot Air Balloons

Helmet heads

Football Squad

Goal Posts

Special delivery!

Delivery Storks

Marshmallow Baby Bundles

Baby Buggies

Lemonade Coolers (Single Recipe)

Jeepers, peepers!

Bird-Watchers

Munchkin Fledglings

Keep on truckin’

Delivery Trucks

Make believe it!

Pink Unicorns

Glitter Fairies

Nursery games

Baby Bears

Baby Rattles

Bows Art (Single Recipe)

Chapter Two: We Baked a Zoo

Critter cupcakes as easy as 1-2-3-ROAR!

Fido’s spots

Fire Hydrants

Barking Dogs

How the cookie crumbles…

Lucky Kitty

How now brown cow?

Chocolate Cows

Let’s be shellfish!

Crabby Crab Cupcakes

Oysters with Pearls

Busy Beavers (Single Recipe)

Bucky the Chipmunk (Single Recipe)

Safari so good + Jungle boogie

Elephants

Giraffes

Lions

Gorillas

Tigers

Bee Eaters

White Lab Mice (Single Recipe)

Cheese Slice (Single Recipe)

Nessie sighting!

Loch Ness Monster

Go whole hog!

Groundhogs

Hedgehogs

My pad or yours?

Frogs

Dragonflies

Wing it!

Chapter 3: We Wish You a Merry Cupcake

Year round holiday-licious decorating ideas!

Love is in the air!

Valentine Lovebugs

Sweet Hearts

Pesky wabbits!

Easter Bunnies

Carrot Patch

Big Bang!

Patriotic Rockets

Fourth of July Explosions

Tricks or treats!

Halloween Bats

Pretzel Skeletons

Circus Peanut Pumpkins

Monster Mouth (Single Recipe)

Spider bites!

Cupcake Spiders

Gobble, gobble, gobble!

Thanksgiving Turkeys

Autumn Leaves

Turn over a new leaf!

Santa’s got a crew!

Santa Face

Reindeer Roundup

It takes a wreath…

…to make a wreath!

Mini Christmas Wreath Cupcakes

Make it snappy!

Gingersnap Babies

Snow Day!

Change your HAT-titude!

Snowman Cupcakes

Skating on thin ice!

Melted Snowmen

Oreo Penguins

Lorna Dooneville

Cookie Village

Bugle Trees

Champagne Toast

Cheers!

Editorial Reviews

★ 04/16/2018
Food stylist Tack and photographer Richardson deliver a delightful, creative addition to their cupcake cookbook repertoire (after Cake My Day!). Madeleine cookies become oyster shells, mini Oreos become delivery truck wheels, and thin pretzel sticks become football goal posts to turn cupcakes into “over the top... masterpieces.” Each recipe starts with baked cupcakes, and decorating is divided into four steps, with each representing a phase in the cupcake transformation. The steps are precisely written, easy to follow, and accompanied by plenty of photos. Readers will delight in creating adorable droids with Mallomar heads, swans with marshmallow bodies, and eye-catching skeletons with candy-coated pretzel bones. With more than 100 cupcake creations, ranging from baby buggies to champagne cocktails, this innovative book provides decorative dessert ideas for a myriad of occasions. Complete with a list of cake-decorating suppliers and candy sources, this is an excellent guide for bakers of all levels who have a passion for creative baking. Agent: Martha Kaplan, Martha Kaplan Agency. (June)

Publishers Weekly

"Readers will delight in creating adorable droids with Mallomar heads, swans with marshmallow bodies, and eye-catching skeletons with candy-coated pretzel bones. With more than 100 cupcake creations, ranging from baby buggies to champagne cocktails, this innovative book provides decorative dessert ideas for a myriad of occasions. Complete with a list of cake-decorating suppliers and candy sources, this is an excellent guide for bakers of all levels who have a passion for creative baking." —Publishers Weekly, starred review

"Karen and Alan CRUSHED the cupcake game yet again! All the same whim and wit, but in straightforward simplification that is literally a piece of cake! Channeling the same childhood spirit of giggle and goof, Karen and Alan deliver an end game that proves you and any of your cupcake decorating team, are every bit the pro. Fun to decorate, a joy to relish in and a delight to eat. A perfect formula, if you ask me!" —Christina Tosi, chef and founder Momofuku Milk Bar

"I am proud to say I own every book Karen Tack and Alan Richardson have created and I am so excited this new delicious one has arrived!" —Dylan Lauren, Dylan's Candy Bar

"Make it Easy, Cupcake is stamped with Karen and Alan's boundless imagination, spunk and humor. That each adorably illustrated creation has only 4 steps is a bonus, like a double-dip of sparkly sprinkles on a frosted cupcake."—Dorie Greenspan, James Beard award-winning author of Dorie's Cookies

From the Publisher