With as many ways as there are to decorate cupcakes, they can be really boring if you just slap some plain icing on them. I like to make them fun and interesting, and one of my favorite ways to do that is with colorful, swirled icing.
Rather than mix food coloring into the icing, I use it to paint the decorator bag, creating a result so crazy and cool that you won’t believe you got it from such a simple technique. Let me show you how!
Gather the supplies
The first things you’ll need, of course, are cupcakes and icing! This technique works best with white decorator’s icing (see here for my recipe), but you can use canned frosting if you need to, just make sure it’s as white as possible. As for equipment, you’ll need some disposable icing bags, a star-shaped icing tip
Select the colors
The best part about this technique is that you can choose any colors you want and can customize it to the occasion. You can use orange and black for Halloween, red and green for Christmas, or pink and blue for a baby shower. A rainbow of colors makes for a fun child’s party treat (like Jo’s Candyland party) and can even look tie-dyed. Using team colors will make a great addition to any sporting event, from a child’s soccer game to a tailgating party.
You’ll be painting from 4 to 6 stripes of color for your icing, but you can repeat colors, so you really only need at least 2 different colors (up to 6 max).
Paint the bags
Okay, now for the actual technique! Attach the star tip and coupler to the disposable bag and flip the end of the bag out to form a cuff, so that you can reach the inside easier. Here’s where the glass comes in handy, as it serves as a holder for the bag. Put the tip of the bag in the bottom of the glass and let it stand upright.
Now use the paint brush to paint stripes of color on the inside of the bag, starting at the tip and going up about 3-4 inches. Each stripe of food coloring should be fairly thick and about 1/2″ wide.
If you are using 2 or 3 colors, paint two stripes of each color, alternating them. If you are using 4, 5, or 6 colors, paint one stripe of each color. Be sure to leave some space between each stripe.
The photo on the left shows me painting orange and black alternating stripes, and the result is on the right.
Here’s another example with a rainbow of 6 colors (red, orange, yellow, green, blue, and purple).
Fill the bags
Now scoop a bunch of white icing into the bag with a spoon. The stripes of color will be very easy to see now.
Twist the top of the bag to close it and squeeze icing out of the tip until it no longer flows white, but starts to show the colors you used. Pretty cool, huh?
Decorate the cupcakes
Now for the fun part! Squeeze the icing out onto the cupcake in any design or pattern you want. Here are some example patterns I like:
The results
Here are my finished cupcakes. You can see that the color starts out bolder and fades as you do more cupcakes. Eventually you’ll run out of icing in the bag, but unfortunately you can’t just keep adding more, because your color will get all used up. You’ll need to start with a clean bag each time you need more icing (which is why I like the disposable ones) and paint fresh stripes on it. You should be able to get about a dozen cupcakes out of one bag of icing.
24 comments so far:
Do you think it would work if I just used a Ziploc bag and snipped off the end?
Hmm, that’s an interesting suggestion, Pauline. In theory a Ziploc would work, but in practice I think it would give you a lot of trouble. The Ziploc isn’t going to be as stiff as the decorator bag, so I think you might have a hard time keeping the sides from touching each other as you paint the stripes. Also, because it’s square, it’s much wider and you might have a hard time getting your stripes of color on there.
So I guess a Ziploc might work in a pinch, but I think you would be frustrated and would get much better results with an icing bag.
Whichever type of bag you use, I really recommend using a star tip in the bag (rather than just cutting a hole in the end) so that you get nice decorative edges on the icing, rather than just round blobs.
Those are great! i love the simplicity of the idea. I’m going to link to this for my halloween series if you don’t mind
dot
Dot, we would love for you to link to us. Your site, Dabbled, looks really fun and I can’t wait to read more!
This looks like so much fun! I might have to try this in orange and black.
Those are super cute and creative!
Thanks, Rachel and Ann!
yes it would work if you use a ziplock and cut the end off. i saw alton brown do it last nite
on feasting on waves…just go slow, or it will pop off frodo
These are crazy cool!
These are super fun! Great demonstration!
way 2 marvellous !!!
Oooh, I am a cupcake lover and can’t wait to give these a whirl! Thanks!
These are gorgeous! You mentioned that liquid food coloring doesn’t work, how about the gel food coloring by Betty Crocker?
Nicole, I haven’t worked with the Betty Crocker gel food colors before, but as long as the gel is thick enough to stick to the sides of the bag when you brush it on, it should work fine. Please let us know how it goes!
These will work perfect for my son’s upcoming Webkinz party! Thanks!
I made them with a ziploc bag and it worked great! I put the ziploc bag inside a large cup. I didn’t have any paint brushes handy (since I just moved and they are packed away) so I just used a straw to spread in the Wilton food coloring gel. They look great! I cant’ wait to try it with a star tip next time!! You can see some of my pictures here, here, and here
Great job, Julie. Thanks for sharing your photos!
AWESOME!! tomorrow on my blog, i have my second attempt withthe batter, it cameout much better!! these are gorgeous, thanks for sharing!!!!
Thanks, Kathy. Can’t wait to see ‘em!
Youre really creative….its beautiful…!
I just love these cupcakes. I will be in Florida and will have to make do with whatever I can pull together. Hope they come out! Thank you for sharing these wonderful ideas! Sandy
Thanks, Sandy! We’d love to see your results. Feel free to post a photo in our Flickr pool!
P.S. If you’re making them for this weekend, you might like to check out my post about Fourth of July cupcakes, which use this technique as well as our new Cupcake Collars.
Just made them for the 4th…. they are awesome and so easy to do.
I made the cakes in the Foil Star molds and then using red and blue used the little stars technique.
They are easy and neat because everyone turned out slightly different.
Katrina, we are glad the technique was so easy for you. If you happened to take pictures of them before they were gobbled up. please send us one or add them to our Flikr group: http://www.flickr.com/photos/chicaandjo/sets/72157608185348310/