Easy Back to School Apple Cupcakes are a delightful and simple way to celebrate the start of the school year. They’re ideal for class parties, family traditions, or a festive after-school treat.
If your children are heading back to school, these apple-shaped cupcakes are a fun, quick idea to mark the occasion. This recipe was originally shared on Somewhat Simple last year and is an easy favorite to bring back each fall.
We have a small family tradition the night before school starts — a simple celebration that always ends with a school-themed dessert. The kids pick the dessert, and it changes year to year. One year it was a school bus cake, another a 3-D bus (cute, but time-consuming), and sometimes we recreate elements from the kids’ school. These apple cupcakes were last year’s choice and proved to be super cute and easy.
To keep things fast during the busy back-to-school rush, we used a boxed cake mix and a can of frosting. If you prefer homemade, feel free to make the cupcakes and frosting from scratch. Either way, the decorating is the fun part: tint the frosting, add a stem and a leaf, and you’ve got apple cupcakes in minutes.
Tips for decorating:
– Tint the frosting with red food coloring until you reach a deep pink or red shade.
– Use red sugar sprinkles for added sparkle and texture.
– Pretzel sticks make perfect edible stems.
– Slice green mint candies or other green candy into small pieces for leaves.
For presentation, I like to bake the cupcakes on parchment and place them in red liners before serving — it’s optional but helps them read more clearly as apples.
These cupcakes travel well to school and classroom parties. We had extras, and my daughter shared some with friends — they were a hit!
Other back-to-school ideas to consider:
- One-pot dinners to keep evenings simple
- Quick breakfast or snack options
- Easy muffin and overnight oats recipes for busy mornings
Back to School Apple Cupcakes
Ingredients
- 1 box yellow cake mix, plus ingredients called for on the box
- 1 small can of vanilla frosting
- Red food coloring
- Red sugar sprinkles
- Green candy leaves, sliced thin
- Pretzel sticks
Instructions
- Prepare the cupcakes according to the box instructions and allow them to cool completely.
- Add a few drops of red food coloring to the vanilla frosting and mix until the color is a dark pink or red.
- Spread a thin, even layer of frosting on each cooled cupcake.
- Sprinkle red sugar crystals over the frosting for sparkle and texture.
- Cut pretzel sticks in half and insert one half into the top of each cupcake to form the stem.
- Add a sliced candy leaf on one side of each pretzel stem for a finished apple look.
Nutrition
Carbohydrates: 17 g,
Protein: 1 g,
Fat: 4 g,
Cholesterol: 20 mg,
Sodium: 164 mg,
Sugar: 9 g
Nutrition information is automatically calculated and should be used as an approximation.
Additional Info
Happy Fall, y’all!
