{Cupcake Decorating} Basic Icing/Frosting Piping Techniques: How to frost cupcakes with piping tips

I am sure everyone loves it:
Standing in front of a cupcake shop and almost pressing your nose flat against the window because all you see are these beautiful frosted cupcakes and you ask yourself:
Can I do that too? Of course you can!

All you need is a piping bag, frosting and great piping tips of your choice and a little practice.

Decorating cupcakes with piping tips is not that hard at all!

If you are completely new to decorating cupcakes, I will show you a couple of must have piping tips/nozzles and how their designs look frosted on a cupcake.
I personally love large decorating tips, definitely prefer them over smaller ones.

Remember: You can never ever have too many decorating tips!

What I usually recommend is to first practice piping on a board first, to get the hang of it.

This is a great basic but oh so wonderful piping tip: A Large Round Decorating Tip.

Use a pastry bag, fitted with a large round tip to pipe, beginning in the center, swirl the tip and release as you pull up to form a peak and soft top. It depends on what you prefer on “how high” you want to pipe.

The star tip is used very often as well.

Starting in the center, swirl around with even pressure and leave a cute peaky top at the top again.
This decorating tip is awesome to create an “ice cream” look.

My absolute favourite of them all cannot be missed here!

I got this tip from a special friend (wink, wink sweetie) and I fell in love with it right when I first used it. It’s an Ateco tip (no. 848) which creates wonderful swirls!

As you can see in the photo:
Depends on how much frosting you pipe and with how much pressure: It changes the look from very bold and thick, to a rather “slimmer” look. Just pipe as you like it best.
I usually pipe huge swirls (because I am in LOVE with huge swirls) when I use the cupcakes as home decor. Yes, you heard it. I do not eat my cuppies all the time, a lot of them I place all around the house :-)
Imagine you decorate your house for Easter. All these lovely pastel color shades…
What’s better than adding cupcakes to the scene? Absolutely stunning and beautiful. If you use a lot of icing sugar in the frosting, it hardens really well and you can keep the cupcake for months!
It gets as hard as a stone, I tell you. But the look, won’t change.

You can use a different piping technique with Ateco’s 848 tip and create this cute design, same tip, different look:

Say hello to the Wilton Decorating Drop Flower Tip (1F)

It is pretty cute! When you frost it like I did, it leaves a little hole on the very top.
I would suggest to place a cute candy heart etc. on top to hide the hole.

Now here comes a classic!
Star tip (Wilton 1M).
You can make a classic swirl or create a beautiful rose on top of your cupcake. I absolutely love those, they look so real and they are so easy to make:

Start in the center and slowly, but with even pressure, move your decorating tip in a circular pattern around your center.

I adore Wilton’s 6B Star Tip.

Again, you have the option to frost a classic swirl, like I’ve mentioned above (Ateco tip 848) – absolutely cute!
Or just pipe in the center of the cupcake and as you go up, with even pressure, leave a cute peak at the top.
Just like with the large round tip I introduced at the beginning.

Note:
You will create such swirls etc. if your frosting has the right consistency. Make sure it does not become too soft and runny.
If your frosting is too runny and soft, just add in a little bit more icing sugar and mix again. If it ends up being way too thick, you can add a little milk to it.

Here’s a little overview for you guys, feel free to save it.

What are your personal favourite piping tips?
Do you have a certain technique that you absolutely love?
Feel free to share your thoughts below in the comment section.

Now let’s get it started!
Pipe it, ladies and gents!

Many blessings,
niner