• Sprinkles add color to cupcakes.Cupcakes image by Kalani from Fotolia.com
  
  Traditional frosting sprinkles look like confetti candy. A simple and quick way to decorate cupcakes is to frost the mini-cake and then dust the frosting with multi-colored sprinkles. The sprinkles might be pastel colors for springtime or fall colors for autumn. For something less cliché, there are other ways to decorate birthday cupcakes using sprinkles.
  
  

Shaped Sprinkles

• Sprinkles come in a variety of shapes, flavors and colors. Instead of using traditional-looking sprinkles (which look like pieces of a broken line), look for character shaped sprinkles. For a baby's birthday, consider sprinkles shaped like mini-rattles, baby booties, ducks and teddy bears, all in pastels. If you want the cupcakes to say something special, use letter-shaped sprinkles. There are also dinosaur-, animal- and star-shaped sprinkles. If the birthday falls near a holiday, holiday sprinkles are available, such as orange and black Halloween sprinkles with little black cats.
  
  

Pattern Sprinkles

• Instead of dusting the cupcake's frosting with sprinkles, use different colors to paint a picture on the frosting. When creating a picture, add just a thin coat of frosting to the top of the cupcake, enough to secure the sprinkles. If the birthday is for a sports fan, color the top of the cupcake in the shape of the favorite team's logo or colors. Begin by drawing the picture on the frosting, using a toothpick. Fill in the picture, using different colored traditional sprinkles. Instead of making them all the same, make each cupcake different. Rather than making all of the cupcakes display the logo of the birthday person's favorite team, make each cupcake different, each displaying a different team's logo. The cupcakes are sure to generate conversation and a lively conversation on which team is the best.
  
  

Stencil Sprinkles

• If you aren't artistic yet would like to create a design on the cupcakes, with different colored sprinkles, use a stencil as your guide. Lay a stencil atop a frosted cupcake, and then add the desired colored sprinkles. Carefully lift the stencil away from the cupcake. Use one stencil to decorate all of the cupcakes, or select a variety of different stencils, with the same theme, such as all flowers or animals.