How to Frost Cupcakes Tutorial

Besides using a butter knife or spreader and frosting the top of your cupcake, there are a few fun ways you can learn how to frost.
frosting tutorial

Start with baking your cupcakes. Then making the frosting recipe here on our cake decorating page. Now your ready to practice some cake decorating techniques with your cupcakes.

Filling Ideas

Consider filling your cupcakes with some scrumptious sort of filling before you frost them. It's not hard to fill - and this is something easier for the kids to do. If you have a basic piping set you can take the large end of one of the tips, poke it into the middle, lift out and you will have a small piece of the cake. Then, take a small spoon and put some yummy filling into the cupcake.

If you need some filling ideas:

Lemon Pie Filling
Raspberry Jam Filling
Grape Jelly Filling
Strawberry Jelly Filling
Chocolate Pudding
Vanilla Pudding
Coconut Cream Pudding
(Pretty much any instant pudding flavor will work...)

You dont have to make any of these fillings you can buy prepackaged jelly and pie filling and pudding If you want to be a little thrifty though, you can make the pudding yourself by buying a box of instant pudding and just adding milk. After filling, its time to pull out the frosting.

Making Swirls

For cupcake swirls using a large tip is the best, some of my favorites are Ateco tips #804 (round), #864 (star) and #846 (closed star) or Wilton 1M.

This is my favorite set for cupcake decorating. Ateco 6-Piece Tips Set

Decorating With a Round Tip

Starting with your filled piping bag and large round tip, start from an outside edge and you'll follow the edge of your cupcake around and continue inside the first circle until you finish in the middle.
round swirl

Added fun with a cupcake wrapper.

Star Swirl

You can make a different look to your cupcake by using the same method above starting on the outside edge and following through to the middle but using a large star tip.
swirl with star tip

Rose Swirl

Using a large star tip in your pastry bag. You'll do the opposite as above and start in the middle and make your way out to finish on the outside edge.
starting rose