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Gobble, gobble! Gummy candies, marshmallows, and toasted coconut flakes make excellent facial features and feathers for tiny Thanksgiving “turkeys.” Coconut marshmallows are available at specialty stores and online; if you can’t find them, make your own: Coat marshmallows with buttercream and then dip them in ground, toasted coconut.

Pumpkin spice cupcakes topped with tiny marzipan pumpkins are an unexpected alternative (or addition) to pie for Thanksgiving, but these treats would also be welcome at a Halloween party or any other fall occasion.

Over the years some of the most popular recipes in Martha Stewart Living have featured the combination of chocolate, ginger, and other spices, including cookies, brownies, and spice cakes. These dapper upside-down cupcakes are the latest variation on the theme.

These glazed cupcakes are adapted from a recipe by Martha’s late mother, Martha Kostyra, who was an avid baker. She especially enjoyed making spice cakes. The orange glaze is also hers, but the cupcakes would be equally delicious topped with cream-cheese frosting (page 303) or brown-butter icing (page 314). Don’t skip the crucial step of sifting the dry ingredients three times, as it helps to fully distribute the spices for the best flavor.

Make the most of fresh cherry season by baking the little stone fruits right into charming tea cakes. The cakes, made with ground almonds, brown butter, and egg whites, are similar to financiers, which are small, springy brick-shaped cakes named for their resemblance to gold bullion. These cakes are baked with the pits left inside the cherries (be sure to warn guests before serving). Or, if you prefer, remove the pits before baking, leaving the stems intact.

Green-faced, straggly-haired witches may look mean, but they are actually sweet chocolate cupcakes dressed up for Halloween. Inverted chocolate ice-cream cones make perfectly pointed hats. Bake a coven’s worth and set them out on display to greet—and treat—Halloween party guests.

Tiny blue buttercream stars and red-licorice stripes create a patriotic batch of cupcakes to celebrate Independence Day. Festive cupcake liners carry out the theme; see Sources, page 342.

A trio of citrus zests brightens simple cupcakes. The ones pictured are finished with lime-flavored glaze and finely grated lime zest, but lemons or oranges could replace the lime. Or, for a particularly pretty display, divide the glaze into thirds and flavor each portion with a different citrus, with garnishes to match.

Present Dad with a bunch of golf-themed cupcakes, complete with putting greens and sand traps, on his special day. The mini greens are adorned with colored sanding sugar, a candy golf ball, and a ribbon flag; graham-cracker crumbs stand in for sand. You could create an entire course by decorating eighteen cupcakes with different numbered flags, and the remaining six with sand traps.

Celebrate commencement day with a diploma of a different sort: tiny replicas made of airy tuile cookies that are curled around a skewer and neatly tied with strips of sour candy. To make the template for the tuile scroll, use the lid of a plastic storage container.

Some say the hummingbird cake, a Southern specialty replete with pineapple chunks, bananas, coconut, and walnuts, earned its name because each otherworldly bite makes you hum with delight. Others hold that the cake is as sweet as the sugared water used to attract the tiny birds. Adorned with dried-pineapple “flowers,” the cupcake variation makes a beautiful presentation for Mother’s Day. To give the flowers a cupped shape (shown opposite), cool them in muffin tins as described on page 323 (instead of on a wire rack, shown below).

There’s no need to perfect your piping skills to create beautiful flower-topped cupcakes. Instead, adorn them with a few fresh, edible flowers. Some of the best-tasting varieties include nasturtiums, pansies, hibiscus, snapdragons, violets, and marigolds (pictured). Use only flowers grown without pesticides, either from your own organic garden or from specialty suppliers. When making the little pound cakes, remember to cream the butter and sugar thoroughly to produce the right texture.

Pound-cake batters bake into especially rich and dense cupcakes, and the traditional recipe can be adapted in many ways to vary the flavor and texture. In this version, brown sugar replaces granulated for a hint of caramel flavor, while buttermilk makes for a more tender crumb than when made with regular milk. Nutty brown-butter icing pairs especially well with these cupcakes, but many other toppings would also work, including brown-sugar cream-cheese frosting (page 310) or whipped cream (page 316).

Inspiration for new cupcakes can come from anywhere, even a popular childhood sandwich. The creamy peanut butter frosting may be crowned with any jelly or jam flavor; strawberry is pictured, but grape or raspberry would also be delicious. For the best flavor, use natural-style peanut butter in the cupcake batter.

Consider making decorative cupcakes instead of (or to go along with) traditional dyed eggs for Easter this year. The patterns are very simple to produce: Various pastel colors of royal icing are piped onto a cupcake, then quickly swirled or dragged with a toothpick. Modify the color scheme to make cupcakes for other holidays—red and green for Christmas, for example, or black and orange for Halloween.

Be prepared for guests to buzz with delight at the sight of miniature marzipan bees alighting atop piped buttercream dahlias. Honey (of course!) flavors the cakes. Serve them at a garden reception, shower, or child’s birthday party, on their own or with the sunflower cupcakes on page 273.

Boston cream pie—which, of course, is not a pie at all—originated at the Parker House Hotel in Boston in the 1850s. When home cooks replicated the dessert, they baked the soft yellow sponge cake in pie tins (hence the name), which were more readily available than cake pans. This petite variation is at once familiar and novel.

Bake an unexpected alternative batch of treats using abundant seasonal zucchini from the farmstand or local market. Like their carrot counterparts, these are finished with cream-cheese frosting. For a more wholesome snack, forgo the frosting and lightly dust cupcakes with confectioners’ sugar instead.