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I’m going to show you how to make really fun and simple Christmas cupcakes. To start, we’re going to take a pastry bag with an 824 star tip, a large one. I’m going to fill it with green buttercream. I like to squeeze a little bit out before I start because there’s going to be an air pocket there and then we don’t want it to explode on our cupcake. I’m going to start with a swirl. I’m going to leave a little border so you can see the flavor of the cupcake in the end. Just apply pressure, and go in a circle, and then build on top of that last one. Keep building until you get nice peak. Let go of the pressure so you get a nice little top. This is our Christmas tree.

Then I’m going to take some sprinkles. These are actually called dragees, or pearl sprinkles. I’m going to just drop them on our buttercream, just like that, because it will stick right to there. You don’t want to get too close and mess up the tree you just made. You can put as many as you like. I like to put a lot of lights on my own Christmas tree, so these are going to be my little lights.

When you’re done with that I’m going to teach you how to make a star buttercream on top. With that, you’re going to take a new pastry bag with a small round tip. You’re going to fill it with yellow buttercream. I took my vanilla buttercream and just added one drop of yellow coloring, not too much. One drop at a time is enough, because a little bit goes a long way. Now I’m going to start with my star. I’m going to hover a little bit over the table. You don’t want to touch the table. I’m just going to outline a star and then fill it in. After you pipe your star onto your parchment paper, you’re going to stick it in the freezer for about ten minutes, at least ten minutes until it gets hard and cold. I piped one earlier, so I’m going to show you how to put the star on your Christmas tree, my favorite part about decorating a Christmas tree. What you’re going to do is peel off your star. When it’s cold it should peel right off. Just stick it right on the top. That’s how you finish your Christmas tree.

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Hi. My name is Christine Yen and I’m a baker and decorator at Butter Lane Cupcakes in the East Village. I’ve been baking for as long as I can remember. When I was a little kid I would be in the kitchen making a mess. I took my passion to culinary school, and I graduated with a degree in pastry and baking arts. I really love baking and pastries because it’s a really great creative outlet for me, and I love eating desserts. And I love working at Butter Lane because we use natural and seasonal ingredients, and that really adheres to my philosophy.

So who can learn a thing or two about cupcake decorating? If you want to learn more, you can take our classes here at Butter Lane in the East Village where you’ll be learning how to make cupcakes and icings, too. Just go on our website, ButterLane.com or stop by and say hello and eat our delicious cupcakes.

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I’m going to be showing you how to make Thanksgiving cupcakes by decorating with a turkey. We’re going to have three colors for the feathers and then we’re going to have black for the body. We’re going to start with our brown with a petal tip. The narrow end is facing up and the fatter end is facing down. All you’re going to do is squeeze and ruffle it so that it covers the outside of our cupcake. Just little up and down motions. You’re going to leave a little space down at the bottom.

Then we’re going to move on to our next color, orange. It has the same petal tip. You’re going to hold it in the same position, narrow end up, the fatter end down. You’re going to overlap it halfway. Same ruffle motion, up and down. Then we’re going to end with our yellow. Again, the same exact way, holding it with the narrow end up, the fatter end down. You’re just going to close that last gap with the ruffles. There we have our feathers.

Now we’re going to move on to the body. The round tip, just going to start at the bottom. You’re going to apply pressure so that it makes a nice size body. You’re going to end it right in the middle. Keep applying pressure so that a head builds.

Then, you’re going to take your orange pastry bag. You’re going to switch tips to a leaf tip. Then, where the beak would be, you’re going to squeeze and pull away so that it has a nice little point. Then you’re going to do the same thing at the bottom for two little fit. There you have a cupcake for Thanksgiving.

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My name is Pam Nelson, and I’m the owner of Butter Lane Bakery in the East Village of New York City. We are famous for making the best cupcake in New York City, and I think we’re really well known for having a cupcake that’s really pure and simple. We only use natural ingredients, like really high quality chocolate in our chocolate cupcakes and the icing and the cake. And we also use real vanilla beans in our vanilla icing, which is also one of our biggest customer favorites. We’re also really well-known for not using any artificial food coloring, and that’s a big point of differentiation for Butter Lane. So the beautiful blueberry icing, and the strawberry icing, are pink and blue because of blueberries and strawberries, which is how we think it should be, really just coming from natural places.

We also specialize in a lot of wonderful flavors that appeal to the food lovers in New York City, so we have exotic flavors like espresso pumpkin. My personal favorite is the chocolate sea salt with caramel on top, maple pecan. And for the season we have apple sliced and a hazelnut, which is also super popular. We’re also really well-known for our cupcake classroom. And we have something like 10,000 students who come through this classroom every year, and learn how to make the perfect cupcake. If you want to learn more about Butter Lane, be sure to go to our website at www.butterlane.com. That’s also a great place to sign up for our classes. You’ll see a spot on the website where you can see our class calendar and sign up right there. So come on down to Butter Lane, we love our shop, all of our cupcakes are made with the best ingredients, and a lot of heart.

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I’m going to show you how to make really fun Halloween cupcakes. My favorite part about Halloween is making jack-o-lanterns, and I’m going to show you how to make really cute jack-o-lantern cupcakes. What we’re going to start with is three bags, one with orange, one with green, and one with black. We’ll start with the orange bag. I have a large round tip on our pastry bag. All you’re going to do is start from the center, hover over the cupcake, and go in a circle. This is our jack-o-lantern base.

We’re going to take a spatula. This is an off-set spatula, a metal spatula. You can also take a knife if you want, if you have that at home. You’re going to smooth that out, just a couple of swipes until it’s nice and smooth. Then, we’re going to take our green pastry bag with our leaf tip, which has two prongs, and at the top of one side of the cupcake, we’re just going to pipe a few leaves. Short bursts of pressure right at the top.

Then, we’re going to take our black pastry bag with a small round tip. We’re going to draw our face. When you pipe, you’re going to want to hover over the cupcake just a little bit. You don’t want to touch the cupcake. And I’m outlining the little triangles for their eyes and then filling it in. My jack-o-lantern is going to be really happy. You’re always going to want to outline what you’re drawing first and then fill it in later. There you have fun and simple Halloween cupcakes.

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I’m going to show you how to make butterfly cupcakes. This is actually a lot simpler than you might think. I’m going to start with three bags – one with just a star tip, one with a petal tip, and one with a round. I’m going to start with our pastry bag with the star tip. It’s just white buttercream in there. This is just going to act as a base for our butterfly to sit on. What I’m going to do is I’m going to start from the center, hover over the cupcake, and squeeze, and just go in a circle.

Then I’m going to move on to our petal tip with a nice orange color in there. These are going to be the wings of our butterfly. I’m going to start in the center, and with the narrow side facing up and the fatter side facing down, I’m going to make one wing tip. It’s almost like making a petal for a flower. Then, underneath it, I’m going to make a slightly bigger one. That’s going to be the bottom of the wing. Then come back to the center. Then I’m going to do the same exact thing on the other side so that it mirrors the first side I did. Now you have something almost resembling a flower.

Now I’m going to take our pastry bag with the round tip. There’s black buttercream in here. This is going to be the body of our butterfly. I’m just going to start in the middle, and I’m just going to bring it down to the center. Make a nice thick body. I’m also going to use this to make the antennas, which is two lines coming out of the head.

Then, I’m going to add a few accents to the wings just to make it a little nicer. Add a few little dots to the tip of the wing. I made four up there, make five down there. I’m going to mirror it on the other side exactly. You can play around with your colors. Make them nice and pretty and bright. That’s how you make butterfly cupcakes.

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I’m going to show you how to make a dog on a cupcake. If you know someone who loves dogs they would love a cupcake like this.

So, we’re going to start with a pastry bag. Just white buttercream in here and a large round tip. And this is going to be base of which your dog is going to be on.

So, we’re going to start right in the middle. Hover over the cupcake. Just make a nice swirl. Just cover the whole cupcake.

So, after you pipe onto your cupcake you’re going to take an offset spatula and just smooth out the surface so you have a smooth surface to work on.

And then you’re going to have two separate pastry bags with two shades of brown. Dark and light. And they’re both going to have small round tips.

And we’re going to start with our dark brown to outline our dog. All you’re going to do is hover over your cupcake, not touching it. Make smooth line. Almost making like a triangle with rounded edges.

And then we’re going to make the ears. So up here you’re going to make one. Then you’re going to switch to your light brown and you’re going to fill in the gaps.

And don’t worry about the lines because you’re going to smooth that out too. So just fill in the empty space.

So, now you’re going to take your offset spatula again. Make sure it’s clean and you’re going to smooth out the light brown you just piped. So that you have a smooth surface to work on. Doesn’t have to be perfect.

And then you’re going to grab black buttercream with the rounded tip. And then you’re going to make the dog’s nose which is like a triangle. And his little mouth. He’s going to be smiling today. And then two dots for eyes.

And there you have a simple and really adorable dog cupcake.

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So I’m going to show you how to make really fun and easy Mother’s Day cupcakes. My mom likes to get flowers on Mother’s Day, so I’m going to show you how to make sunflowers on your cupcakes.

I already have my green bag and my yellow bag, and I’m going to show you how to color butter cream. I’m going to need some brown for the center of my flower. All you’re going to do, in a bowl with your white vanilla butter cream and a rubber spatula, is to drop in the color one drop at a time. You want to start with one at a time so you can get the color you need, because you can’t take color out. Just mix that really well. This is still looking a little light so I’m going to add some more brown – about four drops. Mix that really well. I can get a really good arm workout.

Okay. So, I like this color, and you’ll know it’s done when you don’t see any mismatched coloring, no more white, a nice uniform color. Then I’m going to take our empty pastry bag with a small star tip and fill it.

I’m going to start with the center of our sunflower. I’m going to start right at the dead center of our cupcake, hover a little bit over the cupcake, and make a swirl. Just keep going. Make it so that it’s flat. You don’t want any peaks or anything. Right to the end.

Then we’re going to take our green butter cream with our leaf tip which has two prongs like this. You’re going to hold it so that it’s vertical so when you hold it to the side it looks like a little mouth. At the ends you’re going to pipe little green leaves. Just short bursts of pressure, and pull it away fast so you get those really nice peaks at the end. Do that all the way around. Try to make them the same size, but if they’re not, that’s okay.

So, those are our leaves for a sunflower. Then I’m going to take our yellow butter cream with the same leaf tip, holding it the same way, and just overlapping on our green. Make these a little bit bigger because these are our petals. Do the same thing. Just go all the way around. I’m letting this hand do all the work by turning it, and this just stays still and applies pressure.

That’s one layer. I like to do two layers, so do the same exact thing all the way around overlapping our last layer. And there we have our sunflower.

I like to do a bunch of these and put them all together and give them to my mom so it looks like a nice bouquet of flowers. And who doesn’t like an edible bouquet of flowers.

So that’s how you make easy Mother’s Day cupcakes.

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I’m going to show you how to make Easter cupcakes because they’re super simple, super easy. When I think Easter, I think fun, pastel colors, so I’m going to show you how to color some vanilla buttercream. I have with me purple, yellow, blue, and pink. You’re always going to start coloring with one drop, because one drop of this goes really long way, and you can always add more.

I’m going to start with purple, and mix that really well. You going to want to use a rubber spatula so you can get into those creases and make sure everything gets well incorporated. That makes for a really nice periwinkle color. Next, I’ll go with our pink. Remember, one drop at a time. Make sure to get all that icing that rides up on the sides, just get all of that in there. Now I’m going to use our blue. The icing that I’m using is at room temperature because I like to have my icing really malleable and really easy to work with. If your icing just came out of the refrigerator, put it in the mixer for about five minutes with a paddle on medium speed and it should be good to go. That’s our baby blue. Lastly, our yellow.

I use a rubber spatula so I can get a maximum amount of mixing motion like this, and I can pick up a lot of the frosting and fold it over, and press the color in there. Once you have that uniform color and you’re happy with what it looks like, then you stop. That’s my four pastel colors for our Easter cupcakes.

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I’m going to show you how to make Valentine’s Day cupcakes. Now, the whole point of Valentine’s Day is to send a message to the person that you love and that’s exactly what we’re going to do with our cupcakes. So, we’re going to have three pastry bags; two shades of pink, both with small star tips; and one black buttercream with a small round tip. This is really simple and really romantic and really fun. So, with the first cupcake, I’m going to do a zigzag motion, back and forth. Just hover over the cupcake itself. Don’t leave any gaps in between. With our second cupcake, I’m going to use our second pink. And alternate colors. Just a nice smooth zigzag motion covering the entire cupcake. And we’ll just go back to our first color, doing the same exact thing. I like to do the zigzag pattern instead of the classic swirl just because it adds a little more variation and it’s a lot of fun. Now that my three cupcakes are done, I’m going to write a little message with our black pastry bag. So, just hover over the cupcake a bit, don’t touch the icing that you just piped. And then, smooth lines, you’re going to write your message. So, you can add more cupcakes and write whatever message you want. And that’s how you make Valentine’s Day cupcakes.

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So, now I’m going to show you how to pipe our frosting that we just colored for our Easter cupcakes. So, I actually have two tips. The first one I’m going to use is a large round tip. I’m going use our blue for this one. So, squeeze it to the end and just let a little bit of it out because there will be an air pocket there and you don’t want it to explode on your cupcake when you’re piping. So, you’re going to take your cupcake, start in the center, cover a little bit over the cupcake so you get a good volume, squeeze, and just go around in a circle. I like to leave a little bit of a border just to see what flavor cupcake it is. So it’s like a fun swirl. I’m going to take our Easter themed sprinkles. There are bunnies in here, little eggs, some nice pastel colors. And I’m just going to put some on the edges. Now, I’m going to take our second tip, our star tip, a large star tip, and I’m going to fill it with our pink frosting. So, again, I’m going to start in the center, cover a little over the cupcake and just go in a circle, leaving a little border at the end. The fun part about these cupcakes is you can make so many different colors. I have four here, but you can make as many as you want. Mix and match flavors. I have chocolate and vanilla. You can make a lot of different flavored cakes. And that’s how you make really fun and easy Easter cupcakes.

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One of the best things about summer is the fresh fruit that is available. So, what we’re going today is we’re going to use some fresh fruit that we found and use that as a simple topping for a cupcake. So, we’re just going to take some frosting, using a spatula or you can use a pastry bag. Whatever’s easiest for you. I like the spatula because it gives me some space to nicely place the fruit on the cupcake. We’re just going to frost. And then, you have a couple of options during the summer. You can use whatever fruit you like. I like raspberries; they’re delicious. I’m going to go ahead and cut it in half lengthwise. So, I’m just going to place the raspberry on top a little off center. And then, there you go, you have a nice raspberry. Or, if you want, I also really like strawberries. So, same thing, we’re going to go ahead and take some frosting. Frost the cupcake again, the same way if you like. And with the strawberry, I like to cut it and get a nice little piece like this. I like to show the cut side up and give a nice fresh juicy look right there. Another very simple edition is fresh blueberries. And this one, you can use two or three blueberries. I like the look of three blueberries on top, which looks like this. I have my three. I’m just going to go ahead and place them right on top. So there you go, some great cupcake topping ideas for the summer.

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So, an easy way to decorate a cupcake for a wedding is you’re going to take a vanilla cupcake; I’m going to take some vanilla frosting, and I’m going to go ahead and use just a regular straight spatula.

You could use a pastry bag. I prefer the spatula, because I’m going to get that nice, rustic looking kind of look on the cupcake. So I’m just going to scoop some here onto my spatula, a nice generous dollop, and I’m just going to turn and tap at the same time, to get my frosting on. Then I’m going to give it a nice little old fashioned swirl here, in the middle.

I have that little crevice inside, which will be perfect, so I can sprinkle out some dragees on top. So I’m just going to put some on my hands, and I’m going to sprinkle them on the cupcake to give a nice simple, classic look, like that.

I like to use cupcakes for weddings because this way, you can have all different kind of cupcakes, different flavors featured, instead of having just one kind of cake that everybody has to eat from. So, there you go.

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Okay, so we’re going to make cupcakes for a kids first birthday party. So what I’m going to do is I’m actually going to use banana cupcake which is very child-friendly. And I have some regular American chocolate buttercream in pastry bag, I filled it about halfway so I can get a nice grip on the bag and I actually have control over the bag. And what I’m going to do is I’m going to put a nice generous amount of the frosting on here. What I’m doing is I’m squeezing and a little pressure not too high and I’m just going to add a little bit but not too much frosting on the cupcakes. Not to the point where you really can’t eat it and all you’re going to taste is the buttercream. So I add that on there and I add a nice simple little topping for kids. Kids love sprinkles, they love colors. So we have some rainbow nonpareils that I’m just going to go ahead and drizzle some on top. I’m going to put them in my hand, that way I can determine how much and where they’re going to go on the cupcake. And then I’m just going to give it a nice little sprinkle, once I have it on there you’re all set. Very simple, easy, and beautiful.

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I’m going to show you how to make flower cupcakes. This one is really simple but really, really pretty. I’m going to start with a pastry bag with a large star tip filled with white buttercream. You could put whatever color you want. This is just the base that the flower is going to sit on. With this, I’m going to start in the middle. I’m going to hover over the cupcake a little bit, and just go in a circle. Just keep spiraling until the cupcake is covered.

Then, I’m going to take my second bag. This has a petal tip on it, and the narrow tip is always facing up and that fatter end is always down. This is so when you pipe your petals, they’ll be nice and delicate and fragile. We’re going to start with the fatter end right in the center of our cupcake. With an arching motion, you’re going to apply pressure, go outward, and come back exactly where you started. That’s one petal. You’re going to do the same thing. My petal tip is on a 45 degree angle just to create some height for my petals to make it nice. I’m going to do five.

Then with our third pastry bag, there’s black buttercream in here and a small round tip. With this, I’m just going to put a little dot in the center to create the center of the flower. That’s it, simple and pretty. That’s how you make flower cupcakes.

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I’m going to show you how to make a rose for your cupcake. It’s really fun and really beautiful. We’re going to start in the center with our petal tip. The narrow end is facing up and the fatter end is facing down. You’re going to hold it right in the middle, and you’re going to spin your cupcake. You’re not going to move your hand with the piping bag, just spin your cupcake. This makes the center. You want a really strong base so that your flower doesn’t topple over.

Then, you’re going to start at the base again. Now we’re going to start making our petals. We’re going to go in an arch motion. You’re going to do one, two, three. You can already see it’s started to look like a rose. I like to start my next petals in the middle of the one I just made so it has that really beautiful overlapping look to it. Arch. You want your petal tip to sort of come out a little bit so your petals open up. It looks really nice that way. Notice that I’m just moving my hand with the cupcake in it, not the one with the piping bag. Just keep making these petals. You can always stop here, but I like to make my roses so that it goes all the way to the edge. It’s really pretty.

The more you do this motion, the easier it becomes, so practice definitely makes perfect. The more roses you make, you’ll definitely get better at this. Once you perfect the rose, you can do any other flower. When you’re nearing towards the end, I like to make my petals a little bit bigger as the rose gets bigger, just so it makes for a nice open look, because you want your flowers to be blooming. I’m just about done. I like to make about a dozen of these and give them to someone, because who wouldn’t want a bouquet of edible roses?

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I’m going to show you how to make cupcakes for a shower for a baby girl. I already have a darker pink made and I’m going to show you how to color it, so you can make a lighter pink, just to have that contrast of color. I’m going to add one drop of red food coloring into our white buttercream. Just a little bit at a time, just to get the color you want. You’re going to keep mixing that until you don’t see any streaks of white. So this looks really good.

So, I’m going to add that to our pastry bag with a petal tip. When I add the frosting to my pastry bag, I cuff it over my hands. And with this hand, I’m taking the frosting and putting it in there and grabbing it with this other hand. And then, uncuff it and push it all the way to the tip. Before you use it, you’re going to wanna squeeze out just a little bit just to get that air pocket out of there. So we’re actually going to start with our darker pink with our large star tip. So, we’re going to start right in the center of our cupcake, squeeze, hover over the cupcake a little, we’re going to go around in a circle until you can’t see the cake anymore.

So, after I pipe onto my cupcake, I’m going to take my pink sanding sugar, which is a little different than sprinkles. They’re smaller, they’re like little crystals. It’s really nice. We’re going to take that and just put that on the edge of my cupcake, just in the border, just to add a little accent.

Then, we’re going to take our light pink that we made with our petal tip and with this, I’m going to pipe a little flower in the center. This is really simple. You’re going to have the narrow side facing up and the fatter side facing down. And so, with the fatter side, we’re going to start right in the center at a 45-degree angle you’re going to apply pressure, and with an arch movement, you’re going to go up, and right back down to where you started. Turn your cupcake, do the same thing. Just one continuous motion until you have your flower.

Then, with our black pastry bag with a small round tip, we’re just going to pipe right in the center a little circle for the center of a flower. And there we have really simple and pretty cupcakes for a shower for a baby girl.

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I’m going to show you how to decorate cupcakes for a boy’s birthday. I’m going to use different shades of blue. I’m going to color our white buttercream with some blue food coloring. I put in one drop at time. A little bit goes a long way, and you can always add more. I’m looking for a dark blue now. Just incorporate that really well. I think I’ll add a few more drops. There, that’s a really nice blue. Just keep mixing until you don’t see any more streaks of white.

I’m going to put that into a pastry bag with a small round tip. When you fill a pastry bag, you don’t want to go more than half way. I’m going to use the dark blue to write, so we’re not going to use that much. You’re just going to put about half a cup in there, squeeze it to the end, and make sure you squeeze out a little bit before you start writing so you don’t have buttercream exploding on your cupcake. Then I’m going to grab our light blue pastry bag with the large round tip, and this is going to be the base of our frosting.

What I’m going to do is start in the center, hover a little over the cupcake, and make a nice round swirl. Now that we have our light blue in here, I’m going to take our dark blue pastry bag. Let’s say this is for a fourth birthday party, so I’m going to write the number four really big right in the center. Make sure your tip is hovering over the cupcake so you get a nice straight line. Number four.

And for another cupcake, we’re going to take our same light blue pastry bag and do the same exact swirl. I’m going to use our blue sanding sugar. This is a really great color, it adds a really great contrast to the light blue. Just sprinkle it right on top, as much as you want. I like a lot of sprinkles. If you’re making a dozen of them, you can do six of these, six of these. If makes a really nice combination and a really delicious birthday cupcake treat. That’s how you make cupcakes for a boy’s birthday.

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So, I’m going to show you how to make cupcakes for a girl’s birthday. We’re going to have different shades of pink. I already colored a light pink, so I’m going to show you how to color a darker pink. This is actually red, but I’m going to drop one or two in there and it’ll make for a nice, dark pink. For our lighter pink, I used a light pink food coloring, but you can also take your same red and drop one drop in there and it should make a really nice light pink. So now we have this nice, darker pink.

And so with our dark pink, I’m going to fill a pastry bag with a small, round tip. And with our light pink, I’m going to fill a pastry bag with a large star tip. And before I start, I like to squeeze out just a little bit, just to make sure the air pocket up there doesn’t make the buttercream explode on our cupcake. So, for our first one, I’m going to start piping from the center, hover a little over the cupcake and squeeze, and go in a circular motion, and stop when you get to the end of the cupcake. Then, I’m going to take pink sanding sugar and I’m just going to sprinkle it all over the top. You can put as much as you want. I really like sprinkles, so I’m going to put a lot. Who knows when?

For second cupcake, I’m going to take our same light pink pastry bag with the star tip, and do the same exact thing. Start from the center. Go around in a circle. Stop when you get to the edge. Then, I’ll take my darker pink with the round tip, and with this, I’m going to write on our cupcake. So, let’s say this is for a fourth birthday party. So, I’m going to take my bag, hover a little over the cupcake, squeeze, and write out the number four. Right in the center. Write really big.

Now with these, if you’re going to make a dozen, make half of each, mix and match, have a lot of fun with it. And that’s how you make cupcakes for a girl’s birthday party.

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I’m going to show you how to make cupcakes for a baby boy shower. We’re going to need a cupcake and two different shades of blue and a black pastry bag. So with our darker blue with this large star tip we’re going to pipe starting from the center cover a little over the cupcake and go around in a circle. And then with our light blue, it’s going to have a petal tip because we’re going to pipe a nice little flower right in the center. This is really simple. So we’re going to start with the narrow end facing up and the fatter end facing down. So with the fatter end you’re going to start in the center you’re going to pipe a petal. One two. These are nice arch movements like a little rainbow movement and your tip is going to be at a 45 degree angle so you get height to your petals. So you’re going to start at the center again and bring it back where you started and do that until you get nice petals. And then with your black pastry bag with a small round tip, just going to pipe one little dot for the center of the flower. So there you have a nice little cupcake for a shower for a baby boy.

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So I’m going to show you how to make really easy birthday cupcakes. I’m going to start with our pastry bag. I’m using an 824 pastry tip. I’m going to fill it with really good vanilla icing. Plain old vanilla. All I’m going to do is do a classic swirl on our cupcake. I’m using an 824 star tip. I like to use the larger one to get more volume on the cupcake and it looks really nice and really fun. I’m going to show you how to pipe a swirl on your cupcake. You’re going to start at the border, and you’re going to apply a lot pressure so you get that nice volume. Then next I’m going to just build right on top of my last swirl and keep going until I get a really nice peak. Then I’m going to take my sprinkles, rainbow sprinkles, everyone loves rainbow sprinkles and just apply it liberally on there. Then take our candle and stick it through the middle. This is a really fun and easy way to make birthday cupcakes for kids and adults.
That’s how you make really easy birthday cupcakes.

Transcript

I’m going to show you a few piping techniques, with three piping tips. The first one is a star tip. The second one is a petal tip, and the third one is a leaf tip.

With our star tip, I’m going to show you a real simple border. It’s called a shell border. It’s really popular in cakes, and cupcakes, and it’s really simple to do.

All you’re going to do is hold it on a 45 degree angle. You’re going to squeeze. Put a lot of pressure in the beginning, and then, as you’re going back, you’re going to release pressure, because you want that big bulb up there. You’re going to squeeze, go forward a little bit, and come back, and release pressure. Do that in a row, and that makes for a really pretty border around your cakes. And that’s the first one.

The second one I’m going to show you is a petal. It’s how to make petals for flowers. It’s really simple. When you put them together, it makes a really pretty flower.

You’re always going to have the narrow end of the petal tip facing up, and the fatter end facing down. You want this end facing up, because it makes really delicate, nice, fragile petals. The motion for this is, you’re going to start, with a lot of pressure, at a 45 degree angle. Go in an arch, bring it right back to where you started. Do that a few times, get the hang of that motion, that nice arch. Always end back where you first started.

Then, with our leaf tip, this makes our leaves. Our leaf tip looks like a prong, and you’re going to want to hold it so that it’s vertical. When you hold it to the side, it looks like a little mouth.

You’re going to hold it, 45 degree angle, these are all held at 45 degree angles. You’re just going to squeeze. Put a lot of pressure, and then, as you pull away, you’re going to slowly ease the pressure off, so you get a nice point at the end. Depending on how big you want your leaves, if you want them bigger, you squeeze harder, pull away. If you want them smaller, squeeze a little softer, and pull away.

There you have three tips. With these tips, you can experiment with them, have fun with them. You can put them together with this petal tip. You’ll make a lot of different flowers, and then add the leaf, and then put a nice border around it. Just have fun with it. Mix and match.

Those are three piping techniques.

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So, I’m going to show you how to frost cupcakes using an American buttercream and a spatula. So, what you want to do is, you want to take your cupcake and you’re actually going to turn your cupcake clockwise or counterclockwise. It doesn’t matter as long as it’s actually going around. And at the same time, you’re going to take your spatula and you’re going to tap on the top of the cupcake. That’s essentially how you’re going to do it. So, now, I’m going to show you with the frosting. So, we’re going to take our frosting in a bowl, and you’re going to swipe it back and forth. And what that swiping is doing is actually getting rid of all the air bubbles to make it nice and smooth. Once we have it smooth, you’re going to clean off your spatula. You’re going to grab some of the frosting on the side, and you’re just going to round it out to make a nice round ball on the end of your spatula. Take your cupcake, and while turning, you’re going to tap that frosting on… until you have it on all the way. And you’re going to stop when you still see some of the cupcake on there. You’re going to push in, in the middle, and turn and lift at the same time so we have that nice pretty swirl in there. So, that’s essentially how you’re going to frost the cupcake using buttercream. If you want, you can change it up by adding some simple decorations, some dragees, you can do sprinkles, some fresh fruit, or even some nuts on top.

Transcript

I’m going to show you how to fill a pastry bag. Here I have a plastic pastry bag. They also come in canvas. This one is a little too big for my taste, so I’m actually going to cut it down so it’s easier to handle. Now that it’s a more manageable size for me, I’m going to put my coupler in. This is called a coupler. It comes in two pieces. I’m going to put the larger part in first, right to the tip of the bag. I’m going to push it until I can see where I need to cut it off. Just snip the end and you push it through. You want it so that when you’re pushing on the bag it doesn’t pop out.

Then you’re going to take one of your tips, this is a star tip, and just place it right on top. Then you’re going to take your second half of your coupler, put it on, and just screw it right on. There you have your tip. Then I’m going to open it up and create a cup, and then cuff it around my hand like this like I’m holding a cup. I’m going to do about half way.

Then I’m going to add my frosting. With this hand I’m going to take my frosting with my rubber spatula and just put it inside. And with this hand I’m just going to grab it and pull so that the frosting goes right in. I’m going to add a little bit more. You don’t want to add more than half way so that when you close it it doesn’t come spilling out the top. Now that I have it in there, I’m going to shake it out, grab the top, and push the frosting to the top. I’m going to twist it so it doesn’t come out the top.

Before you pipe anything, you’re going to squeeze a little bit out just to get that air pocket out so it doesn’t spill all over the place. That’s how you fill a pastry bag.