How to Make Frosting and Decorate Cupcakes

By junerodgers

Once you discover how easy it is to make delicious homemade frosting, you'll never go back to store-bought!

We made a tangy cream cheese frosting recipe to go on our banana cupcakes.

Ingredients

• Tangy Cream Cheese Frosting
• 1 8-ounce package of cream cheese
• 1/3 cup butter
• 1 1/2 tablespoons sour cream
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 1/3 to 1 1/2 cups confectioners' sugar (add the larger amount of sugar for a stiffer consistency)
• Pinch of salt

Preparation

Step 1

Before you begin, you want your ingredients to be at cool room temperature--not refrigerator-cold, but not soft enough to spread on toast.

If the cream cheese and butter are too cold, they'll be too firm to mix easily; if they're too warm, your frosting will be very soft and may be difficult to use.

Start by beating the cream cheese until smooth.

You can also use a food processor to make frosting instead of an electric mixer.

3. Add the butter and beat to combine, scraping down the sides of the bowl with a rubber spatula.

4. Beat in the confectioners' sugar and the pinch of salt. Ingredients such as powdered sugar and cocoa powder should be sifted before you add them to the mixing bowl. While you can often beat out any lumps with vigorous mixing, you might still end up with a few--which will be especially problematic if you're using the frosting to pipe decorations on a cake.

5. Add the sour cream and vanilla extract. Beat until smooth, scraping down the sides of the bowl.

6. Your frosting is now ready to use--it's as easy as that! If you need to refrigerate it before using, bring it back up to room temperature, return it to the mixer, and beat it for a minute or so for the best consistency.

To spread the frosting, a small offset palette knife is our favorite decorating tool--but a butter knife will work fine, too. Scoop up a generous dab of frosting and plop it in the center of the cupcake.


Hold the cupcake in one hand and the knife in the other. That will let you get a good view of the cupcake so you can spread the frosting evenly over the entire surface.

Practice different frosting effects: you can make one big swirl pattern, a bunch of little wavy swirls, or spikes.


If you like the look of piped icing, you'll need a pastry bag with a large star tip. To fill the pastry bag without getting frosting all over the bag and your hands:

Put the pastry tip in the bottom of the pastry bag. Set the bag over a tall glass or measuring cup and fold a three- or four-inch cuff over the edge.

Use a rubber spatula to scoop frosting from the bowl into the bag. Fill it no more than two-thirds full; you can always reload the pastry bag with more frosting, but if it's too full you're likely to squeeze frosting out of both ends of the bag.

Lift the bag out of the glass and twist the top to close. You can use a twist-tie to keep it closed, or you can hold the bag closed by keeping the twisted end under the palm of your hand while you pipe.

To pipe frosting, you want the cupcake on a flat surface rather than in your hand.

Hold the main body of the pastry bag in your right hand (if you're right-handed), keeping the twisted end folded under your hand.

Rest the piping end of the bag on your left index finger for better control. You'll use your right hand to squeeze out the frosting, and your left hand to guide the pastry bag.

Start by piping a circle around the outer edge of the cupcake.

Continue the coiling motion until you reach the center of the cupcake.

Stop squeezing the pastry bag; pull the tip up while twisting your wrist to get a nice finished swirl.