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How cute are these Halloween cupcakes? The Jack o’ Lantern-inspired macarons make the perfect topper to a cupcake and delight kiddos and adults alike. And (spoiler alert) they could not be simpler to make especially since you use store bought cupcakes (shhhh). You’ll need a few things from your local grocery store, craft store or Amazon and then you’re ready to delight the socks off your kiddos. Once again, I’ve joined up with some talented blogging friends to bring you this blog hop which is made all the better by these beautiful pictures by Ruth Eileen Photography. Scroll to the bottom to see all the Halloween cupcake ideas.

I really had so much fun making these. They were the perfect combo of clever and easy which, now with three kiddos-one a crawling baby (don’t get me started on how sad I am she’s crawling now {muffled mom sobs}) I definitely welcome easy. Pretty sure all moms do. These adorable cupcakes are perfect for a Halloween party, school treat, a coworker’s delight or a “I’m just feeling like being awesome right now” treat for yourself. Haha!

I was inspired to make these by Lindsay at Sprinkles for Breakfast’s post on Lauren Conrad a few years back but with little kids at home and very little free time to master macaron baking, I got to work trying to figure out how to pull this off. Ta Da…busy mom hack to the rescue. My Whole Foods has a macaron bar. Now the kicker is they didn’t have the right colors of macarons. I loved the light orange, coral-y look of the ones in my inspiration so I brought home some light beige vanilla and a slightly darker beige lemon flavored ones. I then strolled the cake decorating aisle at Michaels and brought home some more edible powdered food coloring. (I’d done this before, using powdered dye for macarons for Kai’s 3rd birthday party, you can see the decorated macarons here). But I do wish I would have waited to buy this on Amazon because I found this set of plant-based powdered food coloring that would have worked perfectly without all the artificial dye. So plan ahead moms and use this link to buy the good-for-you stuff. Also get a black food marker, dark chocolate bar and leaf sprinkles.

Mix some of the powdered food dye with a clear extract (I used almond but they make clear vanilla if you’re making these for schools and worried about allergies). This will give you a liquid dye. Paint it lightly onto your macarons using a paint brush. Paint both sides and let it dry. The reason you use the extract vs water is that the water makes the macaron soggy, the extract dries quickly allowing you to color the macaron without ruining it. I played around with mixtures of the powdered dye (yellow, orange, brown, gold) to give me different shades of orange. I also dabbed the dried powder onto the colored macaron once it dried to give more depth to my “pumpkins.”

Using a black food pen, draw jack o’lantern faces on your macarons. Get creative, have fun, let the kiddos make a mess of them. I gave my boys each a turn drawing a face on the macaron to put on their cupcakes. They were so proud and it was adorable even though it was the craziest jack o’lantern face you ever did see. The lovely is in the imperfection of it all my friends. I shaved off some pieces of dark chocolate to use as a “stem” and then poked the sprinkle leaves into the frosting of the macaron. Adorable!

Here’s the part where I get the lazy mom award. I totally bought store made vegan cupcakes and shaved the frosting right off the top. Because the frosting was far too sugary and dinky for my liking. Luckily right next to the vegan cupcakes at my Whole Foods was a container of whipped cream. Like the homemade kind not the one in the can. So I grabbed that. Believe me, your kid’s teachers will thank me. Kids go nuts with sugar. So take off the sugary frosting and add a fluffy layer of lightly sweetened whipping cream (use whipped coconut cream to keep this treat vegan). I added the cream to a frosting bag, snipped the tip off and piped a gentle, fluffy blob of cream. Here’s the other awesome mom hack, drop that cupcake into a cute bakery style liner. You’ll thank me for this. It instantly looks homemade and all you did was plop it inside.

Aren’t they cute! See I told you you could pull this off! Make them and then tag me, I’d love to see your Jack o’lantern faces. Now make sure you say hi to my friends below.