- Use cake flavors to your advantage when creating fall-themed cupcakes. Pumpkin cake, carrot cake, butterscotch cake and apple cake all make for a cupcake that is just a bit more fit for fall than other flavors such as strawberry or coconut, which are more suitable for spring or summer. Of course good old vanilla and chocolate never seem to disappoint no matter the time of year. Specialized frostings can complement your fall-themed cupcakes, too. Cream cheese frosting goes great with pumpkin or carrot cake and caramel-flavored frosting goes well on apple-flavored cake.
- Images of fall from nature can make for cute cupcakes. Try making acorns out of two-tone brown marzipan, using a toothpick to stipple the crowns. Anyone will think autumn when they see these seeds of an oak atop each little cupcake. For an even more original look, make the top of the cupcake look like it is the top of an acorn. Use brown frosting and smooth it completely before carefully making a dappled pattern with a toothpick that resembles an acorn cap. Use a small piece of chocolate for the stem nub. Piped leaves or marzipan leaves are also a great option. Look to nature for inspiration. Study what a maple leaf looks like before trying to pipe it or trim it from marzipan. Create little leaf veins in the marzipan with a toothpick and layer a leaf or two on each cupcake. Other toppings can be little leaf-shaped sprinkles with a candy corn piece in the center or coconut dyed yellow to look like straw.
- Choose frosting or marzipan for leaf toppings that are yellow, orange or red. Pipe one of each color on top of each cupcake. If you wish to make cupcakes that don't have any unusual toppings or centerpieces yet still evoke fall colors, then use marbled red, orange and yellow frosting to top them. Make this by pouring all three colors into a bowl and gently stirring in a variety of directions but only for a few seconds. Do not overmix or the colors will begin to blend into brown. Use a flexible baking spatula to spread on the cupcakes. Each one will look slightly different but all will have a swirl of leafy autumn colors. Fall-themed paper cupcake pan liners are another way to incorporate more fall color. Contrast a cupcake with caramel frosting and an acorn top, for example, with a brightly colored liner.
