These beautiful piped-flower cupcakes seem to have been just been picked from a spring garden. They may look intimidating, but with a bit of practice (on parchment paper), you should be able to produce the piped designs with relative ease. Stems can be trickier than they appear, so be sure to also try out a few of these; pipe too quickly and the stems break, too slowly, and they won’t be straight. (Any breaks may be filled in with more buttercream.) Before piping onto cupcakes, lightly mark the pattern on the frosting with a skewer or toothpick. When piping, use your writing hand to hold and squeeze the bag near the top and your other hand to steady and steer the tip.
Recipe information
Yield
makes 24 per recipe
Ingredients
Cherry Blossom Cupcakes
Pansy Cupcakes
Sweet Pea Cupcakes
Preparation
Cherry Blossom Cupcakes
Step 1
Using a serrated knife, trim top of each cupcake to make level. Tint 1/4 cup buttercream brown with gel-paste food color. Tint 2 cups buttercream peach. Tint 1/4 cup each yellow and green. Transfer tinted buttercreams to pastry bags fitted only with couplers. Tint remaining buttercream pale pink. Using an offset spatula, spread a smooth layer of pink buttercream over each cupcake.
Step 2
Using brown buttercream and a fine plain tip (#1), pipe thin branches on cupcake. With peach buttercream (shown opposite; pink is shown below) and a small petal tip (#103), pipe basic petals: Hold the bag at a 45-degree angle to the cupcake, with the tip’s wide end down and narrow end pointed away and slightly to the left. Move the tip forward 1/8 inch and back again while you pivot the narrow end to the right. Make five or six petals, turning the cupcake as you go. Then, if desired, pipe a small petal on stem to make the bud shown at left. With yellow buttercream and a small plain tip (#2), pipe three or four dots in center of flower. Pipe tiny leaves with green buttercream and a small V-leaf tip (#349). Repeat for remaining cupcakes. Refrigerate 30 minutes to allow frosting to set. Cupcakes can be refrigerated up to 3 days in airtight containers; bring to room temperature before serving.
Pansy Cupcakes
Step 3
Using a serrated knife, trim top of each cupcake to make level. Tint 1/2 cup buttercream green and 1/4 cup pale yellow with gel-paste food colors. Divide 2 cups buttercream among two bowls; tint one portion light violet and the other a darker shade. Transfer tinted frostings to pastry bags fitted only with couplers. Tint remaining buttercream pale pink. Using an offset spatula, spread a smooth layer of pink buttercream over cupcakes.
Step 4
With green buttercream and a small plain tip (#2), pipe stems on cupcake. Using dark violet buttercream and a small petal tip (#103), pipe two large, basic petals (similar to cherry blossom petals, page 172) side by side. Then make two smaller petals, one on top of each of the first ones, using the same petal technique; apply less pressure and make a smaller arc than you did for larger petals. Using light violet buttercream and same petal tip, pipe a ruffle for the flower’s base, pivoting tip as with petals, and turning the cupcake while connecting the petals. To finish the ruffle neatly, pull bag toward center of flower as you release pressure. Pipe a dot in center of each blossom with yellow buttercream and the #2 tip. If desired, use green buttercream and another small petal tip (#60) to pipe the leaf shown at left. Repeat for remaining cupcakes. Refrigerate 30 minutes to allow frosting to set. Cupcakes can be refrigerated up to 3 days in airtight containers; bring to room temperature before serving.
Sweet Pea Cupcakes
Step 5
Using a serrated knife, trim top of each cupcake to make level. Tint 1/2 cup buttercream green and 1 cup pink with gel-paste food colors. Transfer to pastry bags fitted only with couplers. Tint remaining buttercream a paler shade of pink. Using a small offset spatula, spread a smooth layer of pale pink buttercream over cupcakes.
Step 6
Pipe stems using green buttercream and a small plain tip (#2) on a cupcake. Then, using pink buttercream and a small petal tip (#103), form two basic petals (similar to cherry blossom petals, page 172) side by side. Pipe two smaller petals overlapping each other on top of the first two, then hold bag 90 degrees to the flower with wide end facing forward, and pipe a center, pulling down slightly. With green buttercream and a small V-leaf tip (#352), pipe small leaves: Start at the base of the bloom with the tip’s pointed end facing up, and then pull tip toward flower as you release pressure. Switch to the #2 tip, and add curlicues. Refrigerate 30 minutes to allow frosting to set. Cupcakes can be refrigerated up to 3 days in airtight containers; bring to room temperature before serving.
