How to Decorate Cupcakes

Ideas for Successful Cupcake Decorating

You can find many sites that will tell you how to decorate cupcakes by showing you how to frost cupcakes and put on icing but they don't really guide you on how to plan your cupcake decorations before putting it all together.

Let this page be your inspiration for ideas on how to decorate cupcakes that will be the envy of all your friends. If you really want to decorate cupcakes successfully you need to have an idea of the many different decorating options available to you and these you will find here.

The overall look of your finished cupcake should come together, from the type and color of the cupcake papers that you use to the color of the cupcake frosting and decorations.

When making cupcakes for an occasion you usually have an idea of a theme - it could be cupcakes for kids, baby shower cupcakes, wedding cupcakes or Halloween cupcakes.

Whatever the occasion plan ahead and think about the colors and decorations that you could use, try and visualize the complete cupcake. Some occasions such as Christmas and Halloween have traditional colors and themes that you could work with.

Cupcake Liners

Let's look at how cupcake liners can affect the finished look of your decorated cupcake.

Take Christmas for an example when most people think of Christmas green and red come to mind, but think outside the box in some countries it is cold and snowing so you could use snowflakes as part of your theme with perhaps a light blue cupcake frosting in white cupcake liner to represent the cold.

In other places it is hot and dry and this winter theme may not work, but how about decorated cupcakes in gold foil cupcake liners to represent the sunshine with white frosting and a star on top.


Winter Theme Chirstmas Cupcakes	Summer Theme Christmas Cupcakes

So when planning how to decorate cupcakes you should take into consideration the colors of the cupcake papers and wrappers that you intend to use, these can greatly affect the finished look of your cupcake.

One thing to keep in mind when using the plain white cupcake papers if you bake a dark cake such as chocolate in these the color of the cake will show through which may spoil the look of your finished decorated cupcake.

If you want to use white cupcake papers you could place your cupcake (with its original paper on) into another new cupcake paper case to hide it.

How to Decorate Cupcakes Using Cupcake Frosting

Do you want the cupcake frosting to be a background for your cupcake decorations or do you want it to stand out and be the center of attention?

You can create different looks and textures by the way you apply the cupcake frosting to your cupcakes.

There are many different types of piping nozzles available to create all sorts of different effects and when used with a colored frosting you can create some spectacular results for very little effort.

How to Decorate Cupcakes - Frosting With A Textured Look

You can use cupcake frosting in many different ways. For example tt can be piped to form grass which can be used on sports cupcakes, as a base for flower cupcakes or form nests for Easter cupcakes.

The two cupcakes below have been decorated using a piping nozzle that has a wide flat tip with many holes.

How to Decorate Cupcakes to Look Like a Nest or Grass

To create the nest, fill your piping bag with a colored frosting then squeeae the bag gently and apply continuous pressure while moving in a circular motion around the top of the cake forming a nest.

To create the grass effect place the nozzle onto the top of the cake and apply a light pressure to squeeze out the frosting then pull away from the cake while you stop squeezing do this repeatedly until it is covered.


Easter Cupcake	Flower Cupcakes

How to Decorate Cupcakes - Frosting Used As The Only Decoration

Cupcake frosting can be used on its own without any other decorations. You can pipe it to create a flower on top of the cupcake or use it decoratively by using two or more colors of icing in the piping bag.

The cupcake below on the right has been piped with a petal nozzle. This type of nozzle comes in various sizes.

It is similar in shape to the comma punctuation mark, large at one end curving and narrowing at the other end.

The cupcake frosting on the right has been piped using two different colors of frosting and a star nozzle.

How to Decorate Cupcakes with Two Tone Frosting

To make a cupcake icing swirl half one color half another color you need to have two different shades of icing in your piping bag. These colored frosting needs to be side by side in the bag not layered ontop of each other.

How to Decorate Cupcakes - Using Frosting in Decorative Ways

Cupcake frosting can be piped or spread over the top of a cupcake in many different ways. Below in the following pictures you can see some different ways that frosting has been used for decorating cupcakes.


A white cupcake frosting has been piped using a plain round nozzle for a simple cupcake decoation.	A large star tipped nozzle has been used to pipe blue frosting up into a peak on this cupcake.

Three different colors of cupcake frosting has been piped on to this cupcake using star nozzles.	You don't always have to pipe frosting you can use a knife to spread it smoothly over the cupcake.

Cupcake frosting can be used to make many different cupcakes for kids.	The frosting on this cupcake has been kept low.

Three layers of colored frosting has been piped separatley to create a feature on this cupcake.

How to Decorate Cupcakes With Rolled Fondant Icing

Rolled fondant icing can be used as a cupcake decoration, this type of decoration looks really nice for wedding cupcakes and baby shower cupcakes.

How to Decorate Cupcakes with Rolled Fondant

Your cupcake surface needs to be smooth, you can use a ganache to fill in any cracks that may have appeared during baking, then apply a thin smooth layer of ganache over the top of the cake. Leave the ganache to harden slightly before applying the rolled fondant.

Roll out your fondant icing to your desired thickness use a cutter to cut out your shape and gently press onto the cupcake. You can then add other decorations to finish your cupcake.

Rolled fondant can also be used to make other cut out decorations for your cupcakes such as stars, hearts and flowers.

How to Decorate Cupcakes Using A Variety of Cupcake Decorations

Now that you have taken into consideration the cupcake papers and types of frosting that you could use you should start to think about what else you could use to make your cupcakes look even better.

There are so many choices of cupcake decorations available to you some of which can be purchased or if you like you can make them yourself.

Below find a list of some of the most common types of cupcake decoration ideas.

Chocolate - Chocolate is wonderful it can be used in so many different ways.

When mixed with glucose it becomes pliable making it possible to create many different shapes like chocolate roses, bunnies, people and leaves. It is best not to over handle as the heat from your hands can make it soft and hard to work with.

You can melt chocolate and spread it out thinly and cut out shapes. You can even spread the chocolate over a special transfer sheets (these come in a wide variety of designs) which will give a decorative pattern on the chocolate before cutting out your shapes.

You can create chocolate curls or grate the chocolate directly onto your cupcake frosting.

You can drizzle melted chocolate over the top of you frosting to create a decorative look.

Cake Sprinkles - these come in a large variety of shapes, sizes and colors. You can sprinkle them over the top of the frosting or roll the outer edges of the frosted cupcake to create a decorative ring around the cupcake. Sprinkles can also be used with other decorations.

Cake Decorating Picks - are decorative shapes or images that are attached to small sticks or wire these are then inserted into the tops of cupcakes. You can use one or more as part of your cupcake decoration.

Marzipan Decorations - such as marziapn animals, fruits and other shapes can be used a fun cupcake toppers.

Sugar Decorations - the can be purchased ready made or you can make these yourself using royal icing.

Inedible Decorations - such as silk flowers, candles, plastic horseshoes, minature toys and just about anything can be used as cupcake decorations.

Colored Sugar - look great around the outside of a frosted cupcake.

How to Decorate Cupcakes - Making Colored Sugar

Place some sugar into a zip lock bag add a few drops of food coloring seal and then massage the food coloring into the sugar. If you find that it is not the correct shade simply add a few more drops of color and work this into the sugar until you get the desired color.

Fondant Shapes - just like marzipan, rolled fondant icing can be shaped and molded to create many different figures and shapes.

Candy and Other Sweets - can create some fun cupcake ideas that kids can easily make.

Fruit - fresh seasonal fruits can be used.


Star shaped spinkles.	Hand shaped roses from fondant icing.	Heart cupcake picks.

Sugar flowers	Chocolate curls	Cupcakes decorated with a fondant covering and fondant cut out flowers

Fondant leaves have been made using a mold.	Colored sugar on the outside of the cupcake.	Animals can be shaped from marzipan or modeling paste.

Chocolate leaf	Heart shape cut from embossed fondant icing	Chocolate shape and strawberry decorations

Candy and sweets used to make cupcakes for kids	Inedible decorations	Fresh fruits and berries