Cupcake Decorating Tutorial

Have you ever looked into a cupcake display case in a shop, and taken a look at all the gorgeous swirls and artfully placed dollops of icing? Have you ever asked yourself, "I wonder how they do that??". Hold on to your piping bags people - you're about to learn (and it's not as hard as you might think)!

Materials

• Piping bags - I prefer to use a larger piping bag (16"+) for icing cupcakes. You won't have to fill the bag as often, and your icing won't be close to the opening of the bag. If you're wondering what happens if you overfill a piping bag and squeeze - icing will ooze out the top of the bag, making it impossible to keep the outside of the bag clean (and therefore, it'll be difficult to hold onto!).  I like using reusable fabric bags better than plastic - they are easier to grip, and easier on the environment.
• Extra large decorating tips - these are a must!  Bake it Pretty, and The Cupcake Social both have nice selections.  While you can use large tips from a decorating set, the extra large tips will give you the cupcake shop look.
• Icing - use your favorite buttercream/cream cheese/etc recipe.  Keep in mind that decorating cupcakes requires a decent amount of buttercream - especially if you like large swirls like I do!  My recommendation is to make a little bit more than you think you need to start - once you decorate your first batch, you'll have a better idea about far your frosting will go.  A helpful tip: once your icing is whipped up, mix it on the lowest speed possible for about 5 minutes.   This will help to get rid of air bubbles in your icing, leaving you with super smooth icing that will help you achieve professional looking swirls! Here's a post with my favorite buttercream recipe: http://decoratethis.blogspot.com/2012/09/swiss-meringue-buttercream.html

Technique
Believe it or not, (almost) all of these cupcakes are decorated using the same piping technique!  I used the following 4 tips to decorate all of the cupcakes in this tutorial:

The open star tip is a Wilton 1M; the closed star, french, and plain round are extra large tips, and were purchased from The Cupcake Social.

Piping Technique for Extra Large Tips

1. Place tip inside your piping bag, and fill with icing.
2. Hold your piping tip approximately 1/4" above your cupcake at a 90° angle.  Pipe a spiral of icing, beginning at the outer edge of your cupcake and working inward and upward.  Stop pressure; pull tip straight up and away (complete the entire spiral before stopping pressure and pulling tip away).
3. That's it!  Super simple, right?  Remember that practice makes perfect - sometimes I pipe several bad swirls before I get one that I actually like.  Keep in mind that you can vary the height of your icing.  I like super tall swirls, but you can easily make them shorter by finishing off your swirl after 1 or 2 trips around the cupcake.

Piping Technique for Large Tips

1. Place tip inside your piping bag, and fill with icing.
2. Hold your piping tip approximately 1/4" above your cupcake at a 90° angle.  Pipe one layer of icing around the entire area of the cupcake, beginning at the outer edge and ending in the middle.  Stop pressure, and pull tip away.
3. Pipe a second, smaller spiral (not quite as wide), on top of your first layer of icing.  End your spiral at the center of the cupcake.  Stop pressure; pull tip straight up and away.

Here are a few mini cupcakes I decorated using the same tips, and just about the same techniques.  The heart sprinkle cupcake was decorated with the french tip, and I piped a single large star.  The remaining two cupcakes were decorated with a large plain round tip, and Wilton 1M respectively, using the instructions above for extra large tips.

Decorating Cupcakes
Ok - now that your cupcakes are decorated with beautiful swirls, now what?

There are truly endless possibilities when it comes to decorating!  This is where you can really get creative, use your imagination, match party decor - or just let the gorgeous swirls speak for themselves!  A few decorating ideas:

• Sprinkles, coarse sugars, sanding sugars, quins, nonpareils, sugar pearls: there are TONS of options here, available in pretty much any shape, size, color or holiday theme that you can imagine!  A few of my favorite sources: The Cupcake Social, Bake It Pretty, Fancy Flours, Global Sugar Art.
  
  
  
  
  
• Fondant toppers - remember those days back in elementary school, where you got to make cool things out of clay?  Channel your inner grade-schooler and grab some fondant!  If you can mold or cut basic shapes - you can make great fondant toppers.  I made these super cute owls and modern flowers with just a few circle cutters, some flat-back swarovski crystals, and a little bit of patience :)  There is also a pretty nice selection of handmade toppers on etsy.com.
  
  
  
  
  
• Non-edible toppers - thanks to the cupcake craze, there is an extensive selection of themed decorating sets out there.  Take a look at your favorite craft or kitchen specialty store for cute sets.  There are also tons of crafty people out there selling handmade items and printables on Etsy.  If you're feeling crafty, you can go the DIY route (my favorite, being the arts and crafts lover that I am).  Here are a few easy tutorials (that require just a few tools/materials!) that I love: Fabric Flower Cupcake Toppers, Paper Pinwheel Cupcake Toppers, Birthday Cupcake Toppers.
  
  
  

I hope that this was helpful - if you have any questions or comments, please let me know!  Now, go make some gorgeous cupcakes! :)