How to Swirl Buttercream Icing

So I finally learned how to swirl buttercream icing.  Lots of people told me it was easy (you might have been one of them).  They told me that it was all about using a big tip (and I tried a lot of different tips).  And that you just needed to swirl it (not very helpful advice, by the way).  But it just didn't work out for me.  Until I found this post and this post which actually made sense and I found really easy to follow.  Which means that my cupcakes now look like this (just in time for M's baby shower - these ones are chocolate mudcake with vanilla buttercream).

 

1M tip

So.. it actually is easy (once someone explained it) and I found Wilton's 1M tip (open star) worked for me.  The main difference between these swirls and ones I have done before is that you start in the centre, holding the piping bag at a 90 degree angle (or close to it), and pipe a star in the middle. 

Keep pressure on the bag and pipe a line down to the outside edge of the cupcake.  Then swirl it in a circle around the outside edge (near the cupcake paper).  

Next, without releasing pressure, pipe another circle on top, moving toward the middle of the cupcake. Then pipe a third circle and finish in the centre of the cupcake.

And voila!  You now know how to swirl buttercream icing.  (Or if you still don't, check out the posts that helped me :)

-N-

PS Stay tuned for a graveyard wedding cake that I will be making in May!