Use your imagination to create cute cupcakes

Leave it to the editors at Betty Crocker to help fire up your imagination for creative cakes and cupcakes.

There are lots of ideas for beginners to cut cakes into festive shapes (including a cute flip-flops cake) and decorating ideas it doesn’t take a pastry bag to perform.

The pictures and diagrams are inspiring and easy to follow. Here’s an easy one for a quick post-game treat:

Ball Game Cupcakes

From “Decorating Cakes and Cupcakes” by the editors of Betty Crocker

1 box (1 pound 2.25 ounces) yellow cake mix, with pudding

1 cup water

1/3 cup vegetable oil

3 large eggs

1 cup miniature semisweet chocolate chips

1 container (1 pound) vanilla creamy frosting

Assorted colors decorating icing, in 4.25-ounce tubes

Assorted food colors

Heat oven to 375 degrees. Place paper baking cup in each of 24 regular-size muffin cups. In a large bowl, beat cake mix, water, oil and eggs with electric mixer on low speed 30 seconds. Beat on medium speed 2 minutes, scraping bowl occasionally. Fold in chocolate chips. Divide batter evenly among muffin cups (2/3 full).

Bake 20 to 25 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool 10 minutes; remove from pan to wire rack. Cool completely, about 30 minutes.

For soccer balls, frost cupcakes with vanilla frosting. With black icing, pipe a pentagon shape in the center of cupcake, piping a few rows of icing into center of pentagon. Using a toothpick, trace a line from each point of pentagon to edge of cupcake to look like seams. With toothpick or spatula, spread black icing in center of pentagon to fill in the entire shape.

For baseballs, frost cupcakes with vanilla frosting. With red, black or blue icing, pipe 2 arches on opposite sides of the cupcakes, curving lines slightly toward center. Pipe small lines from each arch to look like stitches on a baseball.

For basketballs, tint frosting with yellow and red food colors to make orange; frost cupcakes. With black icing, pipe line across center of each cupcake. On either side, pipe an arch that curves slightly toward the center line, then pipe a short line from the center of each arch to the edge of the cupcake.

For tennis balls, tint frosting with yellow and green food colors to make tennis-ball yellow; frost cupcakes. With white icing, pipe curved design to look like tennis balls.

Note: Go for extra smiles from your sports fans: Arrange baseball cupcakes on a clean baseball base; line a tray with artificial grass for soccer ball cupcakes; or surround a platter of basked ball or tennis ball cupcakes with a net.

Yield: 24 cupcakes

Approximate nutrition per cupcake: 250 calories, 12 grams fat (4 grams saturated, 43 percent fat calories), 33 grams carbohydrate, 25 milligrams cholesterol, no dietary fiber, 200 milligrams sodium.