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    Home » Recipes » Desserts

    Cupcakes 102: How to Frost the Perfect Cupcake

    Published: Aug 14, 2013 · Modified: Apr 24, 2023 by Jessie · This post may contain affiliate links; if you buy something we'll earn a commission at no cost to you.

    This post is part of my Cooking 101 Series!

    Welcome to Cupcakes 102: All About Frosting! This is part 2 of my 3-part series all about cupcakes. If you haven't seen them yet, check out our tutorials on tips to bake perfect cupcakes, cupcake decorating ideas, or how to freeze cupcakes. Now that we've mastered the cupcakes themselves, it's time to move on to frosting! Which is probably the best part of the whole cupcake experience.

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    Pictured: Lemon Vanilla Cupcakes

    There are SO MANY OPTIONS when it comes to frosting your cupcakes. Personally, I have three go-tos: Vanilla Buttercream, Chocolate Buttercream (as seen in our chocolate stout cupcake recipe), and Chocolate Fudge Frosting. If it's a special cupcake, like my Pumpkin Ale Cupcakes, I'll switch up the frosting and add fresh fruit, maple flavoring, or a bit of liquor (WOOT).

    With any frosting, it's important to pay close attention to consistency. If you're planning on piping the frosting onto cupcakes, your frosting needs to be stiff and able to hold its shape. When you mix, take a spatula and pull it through the frosting to form some stiff peaks. If the peaks hold without falling over, the frosting is probably thick enough to pipe. Fix too-thin frosting by mixing in more powdered sugar a bit at a time.

    Is your frosting ready? Good. Let's start piping those cupcakes!

    Light brown cupcake with a bite taken out of it.

    How to Frost a Cupcake Like a Pro:

    The first (and super-duper important!) step to achieving professional-looking cupcakes is to master the art of frosting them. I use Wilton equipment for all of my baking and decorating - in my experience, the price and quality just can't be beat. (I've also heard great things about Ateco products, though I've never used them myself). I use my favorite Wilton 16 Inch Pastry Bag for all of my cupcake frosting. It's big enough to hold a substantial amount of frosting without being full to the brim (which results in a giant mess/frosting explosion. No fun).

    16 inch pastry bag next to an unfrosted cupcake.

    To fill the pastry bag, fit it with your pastry tip of choice (I used a Wilton 1M in these photos) and bend the upper half inside-out down over the lower half, like this:

    Hand holding a white pastry bag, with the top third of the bag folded down to make it easier to fill.

    Hold the bag in your hand at the fold - this will give you the best support when you spoon your frosting into it! Attach your frosting tip of choice and you're ready to fill your bag with frosting! (I used my lemon vanilla buttercream in these photos).

    Hands spooning vanilla frosting into a white pastry bag.
    Love this post? Check out cupcakes 103: decorating!

    Scoop up a heaping spoonful of frosting, and use your spoon or spatula to push it all the way down to the tip of the pastry bag.

    Then, use the hand holding the pastry bag to squeeze the bag around the spoon and pull, to make sure all of the frosting gets into the bag.

    Pull the spoon out and repeat until the bag is full up to the fold.

    Hands holding a pastry bag full of frosting.

    When you've filled the pastry bag up to the fold, pull the top half back up and run your hand down the bag to squeeze out any air bubbles between clumps of frosting. Then twist the top tightly so that no frosting will escape when you apply pressure to the bag.

    Hands twisting a white pastry bag to seal the top.

    To frost cupcakes, point the tip of the pastry bag on an outer edge and apply even pressure to the frosting-filled part of the bag with one hand while using the other hand to keep the top of the pastry bag tightly twisted. Move in a circle around the outer edges and work your way to the center of the cupcake, releasing pressure gently when you reach the center to leave a nice frosting peak.

    Using a pastry bag to pipe frosting onto cupcakes.

    Ta-Da! A beautifully frosted cupcake. Looks super profesh, no? And it took all of thirty seconds. Pastry bags are great for beautifying your cupcakes, but they are also the unsung heroes of cupcake time-saving: a pastry bag makes it SO easy to frost a large amount of cupcakes quickly and prettily.

    Frosting Tips:

    There are so many frosting tips available now that it can be hard to tell which one does what. When I frost cupcakes, I have three go-to tips:

    Three frosting tips, each sitting in front of a cupcake they have frosted to show the difference in texture.

    The Wilton 1M (Used in the frosting how-to photos above) is my most-used tip for cupcake frosting. It creates a nice, thick swirl and looks very uniform (read: mistake-free) no matter how quickly you are frosting.

    Wilton 1M frosting tip next to a cupcake frosted with that tip.

    The Wilton 2D tip is very similar to the 1M, but it is a little more sensitive to the pressure you apply while frosting and can create a few different thicknesses of swirl. Using the same amount of pressure as the photo above, I got a slightly thinner, tighter swirl with the 2D:

    Wilton 2D frosting tip next to a cupcake frosted with that tip.

    The last tip I use for cupcake decorating is the Wilton 2A. This is a very standard tip - just a large, round shape - and it's great for using with elaborate toppers and ganache that would overpower swirly frosting.

    Wilton 2A frosting tip next to a cupcake frosted with that tip.

    The great thing about these three frosting tips is that Wilton makes similar shapes in a variety of sizes, so you can achieve the same effects on almost any scale. For example, all of these tips will create a shape like the 1M:

    Vanilla cupcake on a wood surface next to a row of frosting tips of various sizes.

    And many Wilton tip sets also include a mini version of the 2D:

    Vanilla cupcake next to a row of wilton frosting tips in various sizes.

    As well as several tips in the 2A-tip shape family:

    Vanilla cupcake next to a row of round wilton frosting tips in various sizes.

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    I'm Jessie, and I like to talk about food. Tag your recipes #LifeAsAStrawberry on social media to share your creations! Learn about our team!

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    1. cj

      March 16, 2020 at 4:22 pm

      First I read "10 Tips to Bake the Perfect Cupcake". There it states how important it is to frost the WHOLE cupcake to prevent drying. Then on this post, in all the photos above, the frosting is not at all close to the edges. Why the conflicting images and information!! Baking for some... can be hard enough.

      Reply
    2. Margaret miley

      August 08, 2019 at 4:05 pm

      How do I stop the center's falling in please

      Reply
    3. Tiffany Zier

      August 06, 2019 at 10:55 am

      My daughter (she's 9) and I are making 100 cupcakes for my in-laws anniversary party this weekend. I am so happy I found this website. This whole Cupcake 101 and so on has been a huge help. I've been worried and overwhelmed (especially since we need to bake the cupcakes Friday and frost them Saturday for a Sunday party). I feel so much more confident now. Thank you so much!!!

      Reply
      • Jackie @ Life As A Strawberry

        August 15, 2019 at 2:07 pm

        Hi Tiffany, thank you so much! Glad to be of help.

        Reply
    4. Edla

      July 05, 2019 at 9:56 am

      Thank you so much do you have any suggestion on butter cream frosted cup cakes for catering in hot weather if I keep them in thr refrigerator take them out 2 hours before serving it will be ok?

      Reply
    5. Gilbert

      July 03, 2019 at 7:52 am

      when I tried it, a was like oh my God I'm I the one doing it...
      thanks.

      Reply
      • Jackie @ Life As A Strawberry

        July 18, 2019 at 7:49 pm

        Thank you Gilbert.

        Reply
    6. Deloris

      May 01, 2019 at 8:19 am

      Thank you so much for these wonderful tips.
      Big hugs from Punta Cana, Dominican Republic.

      Reply
      • Jackie @ Life As A Strawberry

        May 08, 2019 at 12:41 pm

        Thank you Deloris!

        Reply
    7. Phyllis Kapp

      April 01, 2019 at 11:35 am

      I love making cupcakes! I wanted a whiter frosting so I used Whittaker white vanilla. The frosting had a horrible plastic taste. Any suggestions?

      Reply
      • Jessie @ Life As A Strawberry

        April 24, 2019 at 8:44 pm

        I haven't used Whittaker vanilla before so I can't say for sure if that's what caused it, but it may well be one of the ingredients that's the culprit behind that plastic taste! I've had great luck with Kerrygold or Vermont Creamery butters in frosting (others can definitely taste a little off!) and Simply Organic, Aldi, or Penzey's vanilla extracts. Hope that helps!

        Reply
    8. carol hayes

      March 24, 2019 at 10:15 pm

      i'm just learning on this thank you so much

      Reply
    9. Sugandha

      February 14, 2019 at 7:05 am

      Your post is one of the most elaborate yet simple post I've read on cupcake making.. so so helpful for beginners like me. I am going to keep all the pointers in mind and hope my cupcakes turn out as yum as yours look 😊 ! Thanks from Dubai

      Reply
      • Jackie @ Life As A Strawberry

        March 11, 2019 at 2:26 pm

        Hello! So glad it helped you out, thank you!

        Reply
    10. Bethany

      January 30, 2019 at 4:24 pm

      I have a question. If i wanted to make a vanilla-raspberry buttercream, and cooked some frozen raspberries down, could i swirl that through the buttercream without causing it to break? Or put it along the edge of a piping bag to have it naturally swirl as i frosted?

      Reply
    11. Kerri

      January 16, 2019 at 7:44 pm

      I am making cupcakes for my daughter’s birthday on Saturday afternoon. Would it be best to bake them on Friday night, and then frost them on Saturday early afternoon? I don’t want the frosting to get all melted. Please let me know

      Reply
    12. Toni

      August 29, 2018 at 9:10 am

      Hi My name is Toni and I just started reading you cupcake tips. They are amazing. My and my niece are starting our own business and I had a question. How do we prepare the cupcakes for delivery?

      Reply
    13. Julianne

      May 06, 2018 at 12:17 pm

      Thanks for sharing your knowledge. The best teachers give their knowledge away!

      Reply
      • Jackie @ Life As A Strawberry

        May 07, 2018 at 10:58 pm

        You are SO welcome Julianne!

        Reply
    14. Jennifer

      April 15, 2018 at 9:20 pm

      Hi Jessie! I love your cupcake decorating tips. I've never decorated cupcakes (or cake, for that matter), but my granddaughter loves them, so here goes! Thanks for the tips.

      Reply
    15. Lalit

      February 19, 2018 at 1:24 am

      Hey Jessie, Excellent post, I can say. I read your comments and found ziploc bags are really cool option for frosting bags. Well done.

      Reply
    16. Shaylee

      February 11, 2018 at 11:10 am

      Hi Jessi, thanks so much for posting this! I was wondering what you could use as a substitute for the fancy frosting bags? Could I use ziploc bags? If I do use ziploc bags, how do I use the froster tips?

      Reply
      • Jessie

        February 13, 2018 at 7:11 pm

        You can definitely use a Ziploc or a disposable frosting bag the same way that you use a reusable bag - just cut a corner off and place any frosting tips in as usual - but they're a little less sturdy so sometimes the bag might break or tear (just be careful!) For the price, I personally really do prefer the reusable bags - they're sturdy, save a few bags from the landfill, and you can grab them for not too much money on Amazon!

        Reply
    « Older Comments

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