Cake Decorating Classes

Cake Decorating Tips: Cupcakes Can Be Easy and Fun

Cupcakes provide wonderful opportunities for decorating enthusiasts and professionals. Their popularity has soared with increased interest in celebrating with excellence. Cupcakes are showing up at birthday parties, weddings, baby showers, tea parties, Christmas…and many other occasions. They are convenient to bake, transport, display, and serve; and offer a variety of flavors, colors and shapes. Consider the following decorating tips as you prepare for your next special occasion.

Cupcake Flavors and Fillings

There are so many possibilities for flavoring cupcake frosting and filling. Try some of these flavor ideas for the cake and icing:

• Carrot cake with cream icing
• Lemon with lemon frosting
• Almond with buttercream vanilla icing
• Banana with chocolate frosting

Fillings add a tasty surprise. The possibilities are endless—try your favorite jam, chocolate mousse, cream cheese, peanut butter, or strawberry cream. Use a decorating bag with tip #230. Before icing the cupcake, insert the tip into the center of the top and squeeze.

Enliven your cupcake with different shapes. You can purchase cupcake baking pans with the traditional round shape, heart shapes and star shapes. Silicone baking cups come in a variety of shapes and colors. Try a teddy bear cup in the shape of a teddy bear or a flower cup in the shape of a flower.

Cupcake Frosting Strategies

Cupcakes are iced with any of the icings that might be used for a cake. Use a single color, create color streaks, or create a marble effect. Icing methods for cupcakes can be quick and simple or require careful attention. Following are some cake decorating tips:

• Dip each cupcake headfirst into a dish of thin icing—swirl to cover.
• Cover the top of each cake with buttercream using a spatula.
• Cover cakes with poured fondant or ganache—choose between a complete coating and a partial glaze effect.
• Encase each cupcake with rolled fondant for a smooth, firm decorating surface. If you are displaying the desserts in hot temperatures, fondant will hold up better than butter cream.
• Create a swirling peak of butter cream on top of each cake—to do this use a decorating bag with a 1M star tip.

Decorations for Cupcakes

Decorations for cupcakes can range from very simple to ornate. Here are some ideas:

• Sprinkle sparkles, candy, chocolate, nuts, sweetened coconut, edible pearls
• Use miniature marshmallows, cherries, candy canes
• Adorn with plastic figurines or trinkets that go with the theme of the party
• Experiment with tasty, colorful items from your local bulk food or candy store
• Create an animal face with eyes, whiskers, ears etc. using candies and licorice, etc.
• Model fondant figures to dance on top of each cake
• Create traditional butter cream or fondant flowers
• Decorate each cake as if it were a flower blossom such as a rose or sunflower.
• For more cake decorating tips, browse magazines and cake books regularly or attend a cupcake decorating workshop.

Cupcake Displays

Elegant and creative displays of cupcakes are popular features of weddings and baby showers. You can purchase a cupcake tree or dessert stand for displaying your creations. You can create a garden of cupcake flowers; or a pond with cupcake goldfish and lily pads.

Final Cake Decorating Tip for Cupcake Fans

Decorating cupcakes is a great way to get started with cake decorating and dessert making—especially for children. Children love to decorate little cakes. Simply provide the cakes, some butter cream and decorations, and you will create a fun activity for the family or a children’s party.

Image sources: Flickr, Flickr, Flickr

Related posts:

1. Cake Decorating Tips: Working With Buttercream Frosting
2. Cake Decorating Tips: An Introduction to Fondant
3. Cake Decorating Books Instruct and Inspire!