Last Updated on 23rd June 2022 by Vicki

Hi all, today I have a buttercream cupcake piping tutorial for you all. I made these cupcakes for my niece’s 18th birthday. I can’t believe that she’s 18 now! In my mind she’s still the little girl I used to babysit! I am so proud of her and I really wanted to make some cupcakes that would brighten up her lockdown birthday. I wanted a classy sophisticated look and I really hope I achieved it! This post shows how I piped the cupcakes with buttercream. There is a list of all the items I use at the bottom of the page.

Buttercream Recipe

Firstly, the buttercream I used to decorate these cupcakes was a Wilton recipe. I find that this buttercream recipe is perfect for piping these particular decorations. Also, as it is made partly with shortening, the buttercream is much whiter. This makes it easier to achieve your desired colour when adding the colour. This is also a crusting buttercream, which I needed so I could paint the gold detailing.

You can find the recipe here.

Colouring The Buttercream

To colour the buttercream I used Colour Splash Burgundy for the pinks. I added enough burgundy until I had a light shade of pink and then separated the buttercream into two bowls. I then added more burgundy to one bowl, until I reached my desired darker pink colour. It’s worth noting that the colour of buttercream will deepen over time. I often colour my buttercream a while before I use it, to give the colour time to develop. That way I know it’s the shade I want.

To colour the cream buttercream I used PME Old Gold. I absolutely love this colour. It has such a wide spectrum of shades from ivory to a kind of deep caramel, all depending on how much you add. To make this creamy colour, I only needed to add a teeny tiny amount! I always use a toothpick to add food colouring paste. This way you can add a tiny amount at a time.

Piping Tips Used

To decorate these cupcakes I used a large flower drop tip 2D, a petal tip 104 and an open star tip 22. You can see what these tips look like in the photo below.

First Buttercream Piping Technique

For the cupcake below, I piped a buttercream rose swirl using a 2D piping tip.

How To Pipe A Buttercream Rose Swirl

Holding the piping bag straight down, start in the middle and just above the cupcake. Apply pressure to the bag so you create a star shape. Lift the tip slightly and now move around the outside of the star. Keeping an even pressure, pipe all around the edge of the cupcake. When you reach the end slowly release the pressure and lift up breaking away from the cupcake. You can see how I pipe my rose swirls in the video below.

Painting The Buttercream Rose

Once the buttercream had crusted over, I painted on the gold detail. I was really excited to do this as I’ve never painted buttercream before!

To make my gold paint I mixed Sugarflair Radiant Gold edible dust and Sugarflair Rejuvenator Spirit together. You can use a clear alcohol like vodka instead of rejuvenator spirit, but I just like the control of the bottle

Firstly, I put some gold dust in an egg cup.

Next, I added a few drops of the rejuvenator spirit. It is very easy to add too much, so go slow!

I mixed with my paint brush and kept checking until I got the right consistency. You need to paint straight away as the rejuvenator spirit or alcohol will begin to evaporate and the paint will turn back to dust again. If this does happen, just add another drop of rejuvenator spirit or alcohol.

When my paint was the right consistency, I gently painted the edges of the rose swirl gold. To begin with, I painted all the edges but I didn’t really like it as I felt that it looked too much. Maybe it was the colour combination or something? I’m not sure. So instead, I just painted just a few random edges which I preferred. Happy days!!

Second Buttercream Cupcake Piping Tutorial

Piping The Mini Rose Swirl

This is probably my favourite cupcake out of the two! Just as with the first cupcake I used the 2D piping tip to pipe the little pink rose swirl first. This was piped in exactly the same way as the first cupcake, but just smaller.

Piping The Zig Zag Effect

I used the petal 104 tip to pipe the lighter pink zig zag effect down the side of the cupcake. Make sure the wider end of the tip is down towards the cupcake. Apply a gentle pressure and then use a zig zag motion as you pipe. It’s really simple and looks so effective!

Piping The Stars

I finished off the cupcake by filling in the the gaps with cream coloured buttercream stars. I used the 22 open star tip to do this. Place the tip directly onto the cupcake and apply pressure, when you star is a big as you want it to be, release the pressure and pull away.

Below is a little video of me piping this design. The colours of the buttercream are different, but you can still see how I pipe it.

I finished the cupcakes off with some pretty rose gold cake sprinkles. I absolutely love the mixture of gold hearts and rose gold roses.

I was really pleased that my niece was thrilled with her cupcakes. I hope you found this buttercream cupcake piping tutorial helpful. If you are new to piping, I highly recommend getting a 2D piping tip. It’s very versatile and you can produce pretty piping techniques with little practice.

Items Used In This Buttercream Piping Tutorial

• 2D Large Drop Flower Tip : https://tidd.ly/3ls9cP6
• 104 Petal Tip : https://tidd.ly/2WOxAA4
• 22 Open Star Tip : https://tidd.ly/2VuWww6
• Colour Splash Burgundy : https://tidd.ly/3fnoHE6
• PME Old Gold Food Colouring Paste : https://tidd.ly/2TMVf2H
• PME Metallic Rose Gold Cupcake Cases : https://amzn.to/35DlHhW
• Sugarflair Radiant Gold Dust : https://tidd.ly/3fRJ90j
• Sugarflair Rejuvenator Spirit : https://tidd.ly/2VuVXT0
• Sable Brush ( used for painting the buttercream) : https://tidd.ly/3xtrKRz
• Piping Bags : https://amzn.to/3raAWaj
• Cake Stand : https://amzn.to/3nEz9bt

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