How to Pipe Frosting on Cupcakes

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Hello, my peeps!  Today I thought I would share with you how easy it is to do pipe frosting on cupcakes. It is not difficult at all and really does dress them up and make them look fancier.  All you need are cupcakes, frosting, and a few relatively inexpensive supplies then you are set!

How to Pipe Frosting on Cupcakes

For you visual learners, here’s a quick video, followed by step-by-step instructions and tips:

Cupcake frosting piping supplies:

• Cupcakes:  (Captain Obvious here!)  No lie—I make them with cake mix.   There are a couple of things that I do not make from scratch because I really feel like they taste great from the mix.  Cake, cupcakes, and brownies are all on that list.  No need to reinvent the wheel here,  folks.

• Frosting:  If I’m pressed for time I use Betty Crocker frosting on occasion, but most of the time I like to make it from scratch because it really does taste better. Now a lot of cake decorating frosting was are heavy on the powdered sugar and to me that is just YUCK. I like something that has a little bit better flavor and not soooooooo much sugar flavor.  Click here for my Fluffy Cream Cheese Frosting recipe!

• Cake Decorating Tools: You will need cake decorating bags, couplers (seen on the left in the picture below), and a tip.  To do this type of cupcake piping,  you need a tip that looks like the one that the arrow points to in the picture below.  Pretty much any store that sells cake decorating supplies will have that tip (ie. Michael’s or Wal-Mart).                                                                                                                                                        *affiliate link

This picture shows you a wilton cake decorating bag.  You just cut off the tip to fit the coupler in the bag.

*** It is better to cut too little of the piping bag tip and have to cut it again than to cut too big and have to throw the bag away because the hole is too big and the coupler comes out the other side!

 Tips for Piping Frosting on a Cupcake

Cupcake icing piping does take a little practice and know-how. When you pipe frosting with a bag make sure you get all the air out of the bag before piping or it will mess up your design. 

To do that you push all of the frosting toward the tip and then tap the bag on the counter (tip first).  You might also want to pipe a little bit of frosting onto a plate just to make sure there are no air bubbles before you start doing your cupcakes.

Once the frosting is pushed all of the way forward in the bag (toward the tip), twist the bag just above the frosting (kind of like you twist a garbage bag top before putting on the twist tie) and fold it over.  Hold that part of the bag in one hand and use your other hand to guide the tip as you pipe the frosting.

Now you know how to do piping on cupcakes!

By the way, if you like cake decorating, here are a few other cake decorating posts of mine you might want to check out:

Birthday Cakes  (this post has several cakes PLUS an EPIC fail of mine!)

Chicken Cake

Easter Bunny Cake

Before I sign off, I need to give you your daily dose of cute.  Here is Miss M showing off her cupcake decorating skills after watching me shoot the video.  🙂  She does a how-to explanation while she works,  just like mom.  🙂

She is just adorable.  Anyway…once you have piped the frosting you can put on sprinkles if you want.  My favorite to use is Wilton Silver Sprinkles (see in the first and last images in this post).  I think they add a nice touch.  If you don’t have a great cake decorating store near you, you can also get them on Amazon.  Check out this affiliate link:

Well, there you have it!  Now you know how to pipe frosting on cupcakes!  Cupcakes=happiness, so you better get to work!  🙂  If you try piping frosting on cupcakes let me know how it goes!

Warmly,

Deb

P.S.  If you love yummy cake, check out my toasted coconut cake recipe.  It’s so refreshing and delicious!

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