Do you know how to make cupcakes into fairy cakes? Instead of frosting the top of the cupcake, you slice the top off, the frost the cupcake. Take the sliced-off top part, cut it in half, then prop the two halves in the frosting so they look like wings.

Here's a picture: http://www.bbc.co.uk/radioassets/photos/2008/4/4/39684_2.jpg

White cake + pink icing + sprinkles, and I bet you'd have a hit!

I would stick with a basic cake flavor as kids may not like strawberry. Just buy a any white cake mix and any white frosting. You can mix in a few drops of food coloring and its pink. Very easy.

You don't want a yellow or even vanilla with a yellowish tint to the cake batter or the red drops will make it more light orange than pink but white works great. Same thing for the frosting, just buy white put it in a bowl and mix in a few drops of red food coloring.

My DD asked for something similar for her birthday. I did strawberry cupcakes - recipe from a blog. They key to getting them pink was to use fresh strawberries and freeze-dried strawberries (pulverized in food processor). I used the freeze-dried strawberries in a cream cheese frosting too. Yum!

I think it was this one:
http://weekofmenus.blogspot.com/2011/04/strawberry-cupcakes-with-strawberry_05.html?m=1

Canned frosting is gross.

Ok. OP said she didn't like canned frosting, and a PP gave her an easy homemade frosting recipe. Nobody suggested using canned frosting.

Saveur has a recipe for a Strawberry Cake that food bloggers jumped all over last year. A lot of people thought it was too sweet, but I think it sounds perfect for a little girl's birthday!

And buy some cute cupcake toppers off Etsy. That would be adorable!

Canned frosting is gross.

Search "Pink Cupcakes" on pinterest.com

Use a strawberry cake mix and then make your own cream cheese frosting as follows: beat together one 8 oz block of cream cheese & 1 stick of unsalted butter (both at room temp), then add 2 tsp vanilla extract & gradually mix in 2 lb bag of confectioners sugar. (that sounds like a lot of sugar but trust me.) If it's too thick, add a small amount of milk until you have the right consistency. If she wants the frosting pink, you can tint it with a little red food coloring - but I would leave it white and use pink decorating sugar on them.

If you look in the baking section at Michael's, they have lots of fancy sprinkles, sparkles, sugar decorations, etc. for decorating, beyond the limited stuff you'd find in a grocery store. I would look there for embellishments to put on top of the cupcakes if you don't want to decorate them by hand.

My 3 y.o. DD has informed me that she wants "pink" cupcakes for her birthday. I'm not sure if she wants pink cake or pink frosting or both, but I'm not super-creative so am looking for easy ideas I can make (think boxed cake mix as a start). I don't like canned frosting and would love some creative but simple ideas or pictures or links. She's into all the Disney princesses & fairies (of course) - what 3 y.o. girl isn't? TIA!