Tutorial for making an icing swirl on a cupcake

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The cupcake swirl is a really easy decorating technique that will make you the go-to bake sale mom, or the best treat-giver in the office! Once you get the hang of it, you can create dozens of adorable cupcakes in just minutes.

What you need:
Standard or mini cupcakes
Decorators' Buttercream Icing, whipped icing or even canned icing will work
Piping Bag (disposable or reusable)
Wilton Tip #1M or Ateco Tip #821-828
Optional:
-Filling
-Bismarck Tip
-Additional piping bag

Fill the Cupcakes
If you wish, fill your cupcakes with a Bismarck tip. Using a thin filling – pudding, thinned icing, lemon curd, etc. – insert the Bismarck tip about halfway into your cupcake. Squeeze. Hold the cupcake in your hand to feel the bottom begin to “puff” as you squeeze the filling into the cupcake. You will cover the hole in the top with your swirl of icing.

Fill the Piping Bag with Icing.
You can use decorators icing, a whipped or meringue icing, even canned icing from the grocery store will work pretty well with this technique. I would caution against most ganache or even canned chocolate icings because they tend to be rather thin, and you won’t get a nice, tall, strong swirl. If you really want to use chocolate, I recommend a chocolate buttercream or whipped ganache.

Make the Swirl
Hold the bag straight up over the cupcake. Starting from the outside edge, squeeze with steady pressure while you move in a circle/swirl around the cupcake. Be careful that you’re laying the next “line” of icing slightly on top of the inside edge of the previous “line.” This will give you height. It will also help completely cover your cupcake with icing.

Common Mistakes
1- Start at the very outside edge, or you’ll end up with a lot of cupcake on the outside of your swirl.
2- Squeeze hard enough, and make your swirl so that each new “line” of icing rests on the edge of the line before it. Otherwise, you’ll end up with a snail instead of a swirl.
3- Keep your lines close enough together to cover the area where you began the swirl, or you’ll have a funny “tail” on the edge of the cupcake.
4- Keep your bag straight up and down. If it’s at an angle, you’ll notice that your cupcake swirl is very uneven.

Make the Peak
As you come to the center, begin to pull your tip further away from the surface, creating a peak. If you want a really high peak, once you’ve created your first swirl, begin about 1/3 of the way into the center of the original swirl, and make another swirl on top of the first.

Sprinkle!
I love adding sprinkles to swirled cupcakes. Little kids and, let’s face it, most adults love anything with sprinkles on it, so go nuts! Different sprinkles for different holidays make cupcakes an easy special treat. You’ll want to add the sprinkles shortly after decorating, or they may bounce right off of the icing if it’s already set up.