What do you do when your little sister calls you up and asks,
“How hard would it be to decorate frosting flowers on cupcakes?”
“How hard for you? Or how hard for me? Are you asking me to help you?”
“Um, yes.”
My sister, Janice, was in charge of bringing cupcakes for a friend’s baby shower who was expecting her first child, a boy. When my sister came over, her top priority was to make them “cute”. Okay, I can do cute. My only requirement would be that she, herself, would have to learn how to decorate them. Not that I was opposed to helping her but I am one of those types of people who believe in the Chinese proverb, “Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime”. In this situation it was more like, “Decorate others cupcakes and you’ll be asked to do them all the time. Teach others to decorate their own cupcakes and they have no excuse to ask you ever again”. In all honesty, I believe teaching her some basic cake decorating skills will serve her well in the lives of her children. If she ever needs an assistant I’m just 5 minutes down the road.
What we ended up with were baby blue pansy-like flowers made from buttercream. My focus wasn’t to re-create a particular type of flower, just a nice looking one. We topped each one off with silver sugar sprinkles and the results were great. Beautiful cupcakes always look and taste better, don’t you agree?
I had no intentions of doing a cupcake decorating tutorial when we started piping flowers but my sister kept on asking me,
“Shouldn’t you be taking pictures of this? I think your readers would like to know how to do this.”
“No, I don’t want to take pictures right now.. let’s just get these done.”
“I know… lets videotape this!”
“No way, man… look at me! I have no makeup, grubby clothes, and I don’t want to change.”
“Okay, how about we don’t get your face in the video.”
“You promise?! No face! Or else.. I am going to smoosh all your cupcakes.”
“Promise.”
As a result we filmed a little video using her point and shoot camera. Please forgive my messy kitchen and the quality of the video, but I think you’ll find it helpful if you ever plan on tackling buttercream flowers for cupcakes. If you still have questions after reading this post and watching the video, just ask them in the comment section and I’ll try to answer them as best as I can. Enjoy!
Directions in a nut shell: Fill pasty bag with medium firm buttercream frosting with a #61 or rose petal cake decorating tip attached. The tip will look like a slanted tear drop. Starting at the center of your cupcake and with the rounded part of the tip towards the center, squeeze and apply pressure to pasty bag in an upside down “U” rotation. On the downside of the “U”, release pressure and connect the tip to where you started. In other words, apply pressure when you go up and release pressure when you come down. Continue to do this until the cupcake is full of pedals. Easiest way to do this is to rotate the cupcake as you complete each petal. To finish it up add a little squiggle to the top of the cupcake to cover up any holes. Top off with a pinch of sprinkled decorative sugar. It’s important to note that while you’re decorating, you’re piping wrist is at a 30 degree angle in proximity to the cupcake. However, you’ll want to make sure your cake tip is at a 45 degree angle.
alice says
Hi Jess,
Yes, you can use this technique with regular sized cupcakes. You can control how big you want each petal to be by how much pressure you apply to the pastry bag. Hope this helps.
Alice
Julie: Glad the video played.
Julie Falkenstein says
It played! Wonderful video!
Julie Falkenstein says
Why oh why can I never get vimeo videos to play? : (
Jess says
Can you use this technique with regular size cupcakes?
KY says
Thanks Little Sister for making Elder Sister do this video tutorial. Seriously, I really appreciate the video. Pls keep them coming. It’s ok if we don’t see your face. 😉
A Cupcake For Moose says
I cannot wait to try this technique and your buttercream! Your ganache was a dream to decorate with and this looks super pretty and user friendly, too (fingers crossed!). Thanks for the great tips..and excellent photographs!
Happy Weekend!
-Rachel from A Cupcake for Moose
p.s. my ganache post if you’re interested: http://www.acupcakeformoose.com/2010/03/oh-my-chocolate-ganache.html
Leslie says
Wonderful video..thanks
Ernie says
Thank you for the step-by-step tutorial. I definitely have to try this although I’m not sure if I can even make it as nice as your sister’s first try. I guess I can always eat the “rejects”.
Aileen Chang says
THANK YOU for giving in to your sister’s demands. hahaha she was right, that tutorial was awesome!!
Heavenly Housewife says
Wow, this is so beautiful. I am going to book mark this and try it myself.
Have a wonderful weekend.
*kisses* HH
kamran siddiqi says
Great post, Alice! Loved the video! Should so more of them! 🙂
alice says
Hi Kellie,
I can’t tell you the exact colors because we experimented with a few different types of blue mixing them all up. In other words, the color is a hodgepodge of many different ones. As for consistency, I used a medium-firm buttercream. If you read in the post, I’ve linked the buttercream we used. If you go to the buttercream frosting post, you’ll see how to get varied types of firmness. One thing I do recommend though is to not put too much buttercream in your pasty bag if you’re a beginner. The reason is this. The heat from your hand will warm up the buttercream softening it rather quickly. Its better to use about a cup of frosting at a time, unless you’re very fast. Hope this helps.
Kellie C. says
How Cute!! How did you get the icing to that consistency? What about the color? Thanks for your video tutorial – It makes it a million times better to attempt than following the written directions~!
alice says
Hi Lisa,
I used a #61 tip but any rose pedal tip will work as well.
Ciaochowlinda says
very instructive video. the cupcakes look beautiful.
lisa g says
what tip was that? thanks!
Cooking Rookie says
What a beautiful design! Thanks for your inspirational tips!
Michelle says
I’m glad your sister talked you into this. It really is so helpful to see you actually do it. Thanks!
Soyon says
You make it look so easy… I’ll have to try it one of these days. What I want to know is how did you make your cupcakes come out soo flat, perfect for frosting? Mine always comes out rounded!
Jamie says
Wow! I am so bad at decorating with frosting and have so wanted to learn. You make it look so easy although I know it isn’t but you have indeed inspired me to try! Beautiful cupcakes! thanks for the tutorial!
Jessica Auxier says
I love these. I’m going to make these for my daughter first birthday party. They are so sweet and adorable. Thank you for sharing with us.
Kaitlin says
I’m glad your sister encouraged you to make the video!
These turned out beautifully!
Jaime Pindur says
These are absolutely gorgeous. Thank you for sharing your talent with us. You are such an inspiration!
Jessica @ How Sweet says
I am so glad you posted this because I have no idea how to decorate with my pastry bag!
sharon says
Thank you, Thank you, Thank you! I have such a hard time understanding written directions. Your video tutorial has been so helpful. I have that small size and a larger tip shaped like that. I will also try the larger tip out on a regular sized cupcake.