24 cupcakes

Hands on: 15 minutes

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Total time: 25 minutes, plus cooling time

for the cupcakes (at least 1 hour)

Meridith Ford: This idea came from the mummy dearest of them all, Martha Stewart, in this fall's "Martha Stewart Kids" issue. Of course, she makes hers from scratch. But short on time, use cake mix and stir it with wire hangers.

24 yellow cupcakes (prepared from a butter cake mix or from scratch)

1 recipe Vanilla Frosting (recipe follows)

2 ounces semisweet chocolate

48 yellow jelly beans

20 to 25 red gummy worms

Prepare cupcakes according to package or recipe directions. Set aside to cool. Prepare frosting (recipe follows).

For the mummy face: In a small bowl, melt the chocolate on low in the microwave, stirring between 20-second intervals. Using a paper piping bag or a bag fitted with a straight tip (Ateco No. 3, pipe dots of chocolate on each jelly bean for eyes. Cut the gummy worms into thirds, then cut each third in half lengthwise to create a mouth.

Place two eyes and a frowny mouth on each cupcake.

Fill a piping bag with a ribbon tip (try Ateco basket tip No. 35) and a cup of vanilla frosting. Add more frosting to the bag as needed; do not overfill; the heat of your hand will melt the frosting.

On each cupcake, pipe ribbons crossing over the eyes and mouth in a zig-zag pattern to create a ?mummy? effect.

Unearth at your own risk.

For the bloody brain (left, use an Ateco No. 7 or 8 round tube to pipe squiggles of vanilla frosting): Pipe down center of the cupcake first, then outline the outside edge of the cupcake, ending where you started. Do the same thing in reverse for the other side (this makes two ?lobes?). Fill in the lobes with squiggles of icing. For blood, use a piping bag filled with melba sauce (see Bloody [Eyeball] Pudding recipe) to fill in bloody ?pools? between the squiggles.

Per serving (includes frosting): 280 calories (percent of calories from fat, 33), 2 grams protein, 46 grams carbohydrates, trace fiber, 10 grams fat (4 grams saturated), 30 milligrams cholesterol, 152 milligrams sodium.

Vanilla Frosting

About 3 cups (serves 24)

Hands on: 15 minutes Total time: 15 minutes

1 (1-pound) box confectioners' sugar

1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, slightly softened

1 teaspoon vanilla

1/4 cup heavy cream

Using the paddle attachment of an upright mixer, cream the sugar and butter together on low speed. Add the vanilla and continue creaming. Increase the speed to medium, and add the cream slowly until the icing is smooth and creamy (may need more or less heavy cream).

Bob Longino: Actually, "Mommie Dearest" (1981) is fairly frightening stuff (who would ever want to meet turbaned Joan Crawford in a dark alley?). But if an officially wrapped-up, if slow-moving, Egyptian is your nightmare, there are but two real cinematic choices.

No. 1: "The Mummy" (1932) with the great Boris Karloff as Im-Ho-Tep. The film was released one year after Karloff appeared in "Frankenstein."

No. 2: "Bubba Ho-Tep" (2002). Funny and a little bit frightening, what?s not to love about a nursing home where Bruce Campbell thinks he's Elvis, Ossie Davis in a wheelchair thinks he's JFK and an ancient mummy is stalking the hallways?