Yesterday, I stopped at the store to get ingredients for the pumpkin pie cupcakes I was going to make for a Halloween work party today. This was the goal:
I picked up most of what I needed, but Tops didn’t have orange food coloring or orange decorating sugar. I decided to mix red and yellow food coloring together to make orange, and then make my own orange decorating sugar with the food coloring and white sugar, too — and it went pretty well! The normal white sugar wasn’t as big and clunky as decorating sugar, but it ended up giving it an extra sparkle all the same.
To make the sugar, I just put one cup of white sugar into a big plastic ziplock bag and added about 7-8 drops of yellow and red food coloring each, drop by drop until it got dark enough. After each drop, I kneaded the bang with my hand to mix around the clumps of sugar with the food coloring on it. I then spread it out on a baking sheet so it would dry and I could break up any clumps.
All was going well with my late-night baking session until I realized I forgot the can of pumpkin at the store. Leave it to me to not pick up the main ingredient for pumpkin pie cupcakes — who knew I would need the actual pumpkin? (The sad thing is I just made the cupcake recipe about two weeks ago for my brother’s birthday and still just let it slip my mind).
I might be able to come up with last-minute solutions like mixing food coloring together and making some orange sugar, but with the lack of pumpkin and not a patch to turn to, a second stop at the store was necessary.
A few hours later, my treats were complete. I think they look pretty cool (and taste even better), but they don’t look quite as pumpkin-y as the photo shot above.
I piped the frosting on some, left the sugar off on others and even added a surprise hint at what lies at the bottom of the cupcakes on another! 
Cupcake recipe here and frosting recipe from here — I highly recommend both.
Hope you all have a happy Halloween!
