Thanksgiving: Gotta have pumpkin pie.

Christmas: Gotta have cookies.

Valentine's Day: Gotta have chocolate.

Easter: Gotta have ... cupcakes?

Yeah, cupcakes. Think about it: They're cute, just like all those little chicks and bunnies and lambs decorating everything at this time of the year.

They're pastel, just like all those little... Well, you get the idea.

And they can be made ahead of time, so you're free to go to that sunrise service at church, mastermind the egg hunt or watch the Easter basket-opening frenzy instead of sequestering yourself in the kitchen. Just stick the ham in the oven and forget about it.

The best part is, you don't even have to graduate from cake-decorating class to bake a cute cupcake.

My mom took cake-decorating classes when I was little, and she turned out some real beauties. One year I got a doll-shaped birthday cake -- the doll's head was plastic, but the dress fanned out in this ornate design made completely of individual star-shaped points of icing. About which I, now having two small kids of my own, have since wondered: Where did she get the time or the sanity?

Or there was the year she made my brother an elephant-shaped birthday cake, which was a real hit until one kid threw a tantrum because he wasn't allowed to eat the trunk (sorry, kid, but frosting-covered aluminum foil doesn't taste too good).

The crowning glory was my grandparents' 50th anniversary cake, which Mom decorated with swooping frosting ribbons, little beady-looking things and frosting flowers, which obviously had graduated from her early cake-decorating days when Dad said her roses looked like cabbages.

Yeah, cakes take some serious know-how, which Mom has and I, in a word, don't.

Never took a cake decorating class. Swiped Mom's frosting tips once and made a mess on some waxed paper (thankfully had the sense not to try this on an actual cake). End of cake-decorating attempt.

But thanks to the modern wonders of the Internet, I found some cute cupcake ideas that even I could do -- no pastry bag or frosting tips required.

All you need is a shopping list (you'll need a bunch of different kinds of candy and such) and kitchen shears (for cutting up all that candy).

My favorites? Definitely the lambs from marthastewart.com -- why did I never think of mini-marshmallows for those wooly curls?

I even baked up an old favorite from Mom, who wasn't too proud to turn out a simple cupcake now and then in place of those fancy cakes. I cribbed the Easter basket cupcake recipe from a 30-year-old memory of standing in the kitchen salivating while Mom wielded pipe cleaners.

I'm a big fan of homemade frosting, although I admit to cheating and using "doctored" cake mixes (a la Anne Byrn's popular "Cake Mix Doctor" cookbooks) for the cake part. But the beauty part of these cupcakes is that you can cheat on the whole business if you want. Bake up a cake mix and slap on some frosting from a tub, and you can still have something cute for the kids on Easter.

In case you need any more convincing, here's one more reason cupcakes should be the requisite Easter dessert: They're not only cute and pastel, but also small. Read: Small enough to leave room for that chocolate bunny.