Easy Buttercream Floral Cupcakes
These Easy Buttercream Floral Cupcakes are piped with Russian piping tips which makes them so simple to pipe a gorgeous flower in seconds!
Equipment
- 2 cupcake pans (I prefer aluminum.)
- frosting spatula
- rubber/silicone spatulas
- Electric stand or hand mixer to make your cupcakes and buttercream
- small and medium mixing bowls
- toothpicks
- metal cooling grid
- disposable 16-inch piping bags and disposable 12-inch piping bags
- a set of Russian piping tips
- leaf tip #352
- 1M star tip
- decorating bag ties
Ingredients
- 24 baked cupcakes, cooled
- 6 cups (1290g) buttercream
- 4 bottles gel icing colors violet, lemon yellow, ivory and moss green
Instructions
- The first thing to do is prepare our tips and bags. Insert the tip into the bag. For the leaves, I used 12-inch disposable piping bags. (You can use the 16-inch if you don't want to purchase another size. You can just cut the bag about 1/3 - 1/2 way down from the top.)
- Using a scissor, mark the bag about 1/3 of the way down from the top of the piping tip so you know where you are going to cut the bag. You should be able to see the cut mark.
- Cut the bag where your scissor mark is and push the tip down snug into the bag.
- Prepare the rest of the bags and fit with the piping tips.
- Next we are going to add the buttercream to our piping bags. Fold the bag halfway down onto your hand. You can also use a tall glass to hold your piping bag.
- Color your buttercream lavender, yellow, ivory and green. With a toothpick, add a very small amount at a time to your buttercream until you get the shade you want. (You will need 2 cups of lavender, 2 cups of yellow, 1 1/2 cups of ivory and 1/2 cup of green buttercream. I used Wilton violet, lemon yellow, ivory and moss green.)
- Once you have colored your buttercream, we are ready to add it to our piping bags. Fill half of the bag with the buttercream color of your choice. Twist the bag closed. You can use decorating bag ties to fasten your piping bags closed. You don't have to, but it does make them easier to stay closed.
- Once all of your bags are filled and fastened, we are ready to decorate our cupcakes. Spread a very thin layer of ivory buttercream on your cupcake. (This is so the flowers will stick to the cupcake.)
- With one of the bags fitted with a Russian piping tip, hold the tip over the cupcake so it isn't touching the cupcake.
- Start squeezing the bag until the buttercream starts to reach the cupcake. Continue squeezing while pulling the bag up at the same time until you get the height of flower you want. Stop squeezing and pull the bag away. (You may have to practice a little bit to get the feel and the motion of making the flower. You can scrape the buttercream off of the cupcake and start over if you need to.) Now you have your first buttercream flower.
- Alternate piping with different flowers in the arrangement you're happy with on your cupcake.
- Once you have all of your flowers piped, we are ready to add the leaves. Using the leaf #352 tip with the green buttercream, hold the bag so the tip is vertically positioned. Position the tip right down in between the flowers. Start squeezing the bag while pulling up to make your leaf. Once your leaf is formed, stop squeezing and pull up. You have your first leaf.
- Pipe the rest of the leaves between the flowers and all around the flowers on the edge of the cupcakes. You can pipe all 24 cupcakes with the buttercream flowers or do 12 cupcakes with buttercream flowers and 12 cupcakes with a 1M star tip like I did.
- If you are opting to do buttercream swirls on half of the cupcakes, you can just take the remaining lavender and yellow buttercream and fit two piping bags with 1M star tips and pipe buttercream swirls on 12 of the cupcakes..
- Once you have finished piping all of the cupcakes, serve and enjoy!
Notes
Cupcakes can be stored at room temperature for up to 2 days in an airtight container. They can be stored covered in the refrigerator for up to 5 days. (If you're using a different buttercream than my recipe, I would follow the instructions for storage on that recipe.)
Cupcakes can be frozen for up to 3 months in an airtight freezer bag or container.
*Calorie content is based off of Pillsbury funfetti cake mix and one recipe of my vanilla buttercream.*