Cupcake Decorating Basics

 Sometimes you just want to make a few cupcakes and decorate them beautifully. But if you've never decorated cupcakes before, it might feel a bit overwhelming to figure out how to do it.

Start out with cupcakes. Any kind you like, any size and any amount you would like to make.

I am using these four piping tips. The one on the top left is probably the most popular piping tip ever. A Wilton 1M tip. You can also use any large open star tip. The one on the top right is a medium closed star tip. That's the difference between an open and closed star tip. They have very different looks. The bottom left tip is a medium open star with lots of teeth. And the bottom right tip is a large round tip.

I put my buttercream in the piping bags. This is actually peanut butter frosting, but you can use any pipable buttercream. There are lots of options.

We'll start with the Wilton 1M or large open star. I pipe a star in the middle of the cupcake.

And then pipe a swirl moving up onto the cupcake. This is a classic swirl. Very popular. The negative of this one is the large amount of buttercream per cupcake. Some people find it to be too much. You will also need a lot of buttercream if you choose to decorate all of yours like this.

This is very similar, just without the middle dollop that adds to the height, reducing the amount of buttercream somewhat.

This is one of my personal favorites. Start in the middle and pipe around in a circular motion until the whole cupcake is covered with buttercream. This is called a rosette. It looks very much like a rose and is a great piping technique if you want to make a cupcake bouquet.

Let's switch to the round tip. The first one is basically a rosette with a round tip instead. This technique is great if you have cupcake toppers that you want to use.

If you want the swirl, then you can still make it with this tip, although this isn't my personal favorite technique.

You can also cover the cupcake with dollops of buttercream. This one is great with colorful buttercream.

Now let's switch to the medium open star tip. This is a classic swirl with the medium open star tip. You can see what a different look it is compared to the Wilton 1M.

And, you can also make a rosette with it as well.

But just to switch things up a bit, I piped some shells starting in the center and moving toward the edge. Then the empty space is filled with a squiggle. But I kind of like it. It would be great for an ocean-themed birthday with blue buttercream. I think it looks like an ocean wave.

Now let's move on to the closed star tip. As you can see, the classic swirl is almost unrecognizable with this tip compared to the others. But still amazingly gorgeous.

This is the rosette with the closed star tip. I love the ruffles, though.

This is a series of dollops. The closed star creates some gorgeous ruffles at the edges of the dollops.

So that's some great classics mixed with a few less common methods to frost cupcakes.

I love these, though.

They really make you look like a baking professional in just a few wrist movements.

Happy Baking!

Watch us make these gorgeous cupcakes on our YouTube channel here: https://youtu.be/a58gzksgcTo
Schaut zu wie wir diese wunderschöne Cupcakes auf unserem YouTube Kanal machen hier: https://youtu.be/A_s94IcYUeU