How to Decorate Cupcakes- The Basics

In this video, you will learn the basics of how to decorate cupcakes beautifully.

We'll show you how to create swirls of frosting with various tips, simple buttercream flowers, how to stripe a piping bag, how to inject cupcakes with fillings, and more!

Use these beautiful cupcake decorating techniques using your favorite cupcake recipes. Some of our favorites are our Oreo Cupcakes, Vanilla Cupcakes, Lemon Cupcakes, Coconut Cupcakes and Chocolate Cupcakes. Make sure to check out our full listing of cupcake recipes!

Materials for Cupcake Decorating

We used our Fluffy Vanilla Buttercream Frosting Recipe- our Classic Vanilla Buttercream  is a great choice also!

In the video, I am using the following piping tips:
Wilton2D or 1M for the ridged swirl or buttercream rose swirls
Wilton 21 for a smaller ridged swirl/design
Ateco 808- huge round tip (for smooth swirls or a quick way to frost your cupcake before smoothing)
Wilton 12- Medium sized round tip (same use as above)

104 petal/ruffle tip

Viva Paper Towel (the smoothing technique that we demonstrated used this brand of paper towel which has no quilting or impressions). 

For even more on the Viva Paper Towel Method of Smoothing (especially for decorating cakes rather than cupcakes) check out our free video: Viva Paper Towel Method of Smoothing

Favorite Cupcake Recipes

We have so many more cupcake recipes and cupcake decorating tutorials for you to try! We'd love to hear from you if you give any of these techniques or recipes a try!

Enjoy the Video

Thanks for stopping by! We hope that you enjoy this cake decorating tutorial and find some techniques you'd like to try! Let us know if you have any questions in the comments below! 

If you are looking for more videos on buttercream piping techniques, check out our videos on How to Pipe with a Star Tip, How to Pipe with Ruffle & Petal Tips, and How to Pipe with Round Piping Tips!