Depending on how you want to decorate, swirl frosting up into a peak or give a smooth finish.

Cupcake Decorations

Cupcakes can be frosted and decorated with the same confectionary delights you use on your cakes. Popular cupcake toppings include grated coconut, gum drops, whimsical figures created with candies/and or piping, shaved chocolate - and of course sprinkles.

How to Fill Cupcakes

Whittle out a cone from the top and fill the cavity with a teaspoon of filling (lemon curd in butter cake cupcakes is yummy). Before returning the top, snip off the cone (icing will hold it in place).

Cupcake Cakes

Cupcakes have come a long way since their literary debut in 1828 (E. Leslie’s “Receipts Cookbook”). And cupcake, or pull-apart, cakes are the latest and greatest cake sculpture cake idea for birthday parties and youth events. Each guest pulls off a cupcake, making serving and clean up a breeze.

The cupcake cake allows even beginning cake decorators to sculpt cakes into numerous shapes: numbers, sports equipment, team logos, birthday numbers, holiday figures, animals, hobby icons – you name it!

Here’s how it works:

1. Bake cupcakes in extra strong liners and cool.

2. Arrange and rearrange baked cupcakes on a covered, sturdy cake board until you achieve the shape you want. Stagger them as you do this, keeping them close together.

3. Apply a dab of icing to the bottom of each cupcake (liner), returning each one to its original position. Once dried, the icing will keep them from sliding.

4. Spread thinned icing over the tops of all the cupcakes, icing as one whole cake. Don’t worry if crumbs get in it. When the crumb coating is dry, the crumbs will be glued into place so they can’t get into your final icing. The cupcakes will also hold together better.

5. After the crumb coat dries, smooth buttercream icing over the entire cupcake cake.

6. Decorate with piped icing, sugarcraft or candies so that what may be a somewhat abstract shape comes into focus.

Tip: If you have extra cupcakes, decorate them to match the cake. For example, pipe whimsical Christmas trees on the extra cupcakes to accessorize a Santa cake.

To serve: Instruct guests to grab a single cupcake, pull up and forward. That’s it!

Many of these tips are from “Cake Decorating Made Easy!” Here’s what one reader had to say about our Video Books:

“Anyone can learn to bake and decorate delicious and beautiful cakes by reading the material, viewing the videos, and practicing what is demonstrated in the videos.”

Cecile K.
Ocala, Florida

Cupcake Tier Cake

Prettily decorated cupcakes placed on tiered cupcake holders are becoming a common site at special occasions. Creative cake decorators take this to a level higher, and create tiered cupcake cakes.

This works well with wedding cake tiers, stacked straight up in graduating sizes. The flowery cupcake cake shown below is a vivid example:

Here’s a holiday idea. Create a cupcake Christmas tree. Arrange cupcakes, decorated as ornaments, on graduating tiers. Tuck evergreens (non-toxic, pesticide-free and sap free!) between them. Center a tree topper on the top tier and surround with more cupcake ornaments.

Check out how the cupcake craze started at a little eatery in Manhattan, the Magnolia Bakery.

Here’s one more cupcake tip: Store in airtight freezer bags, cupcakes keep well in the freezer for up two months. Bake various flavors, and then thaw and decorate as desired!

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Samantha Mitchell, Co-Author
Cake Decorating Made Easy! Vol. 1 & 2
The World’s First Cake Decorating Video Books

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