Step by Step : Frosting cupcakes – the perfect swirl!
Posted: July 31, 2011 Filed under: Baking, Step by Step | Tags: cake, cupcake, cupcake swirl, food, frosting, how to, nozzle, swirl 30 Comments »It seems a little silly, but even though I’ve been baking cupcakes for years, (even as far back as they were called fairy cakes!), I’ve only just started using piping bags and proper nozzles in order to achieve that perfect cupcake swirl. In fact, for a long time, the perfect cupcake swirl was a mystery to me, even though I could’ve found the answer with three seconds of googling.
The perfect swirl!
When I first started out, I was a little unsure what nozzle was the best to achieve the perfect swirl and also what effects the various other nozzles on the market produced.
So I got a pack of 7 nozzles from Lakeland and set about experimenting. I also recently bought the Wilton 1M tip that I’ve heard so much about (its supposed to be THE classic nozzle to achieve the perfect swirl) in a set along with the Wilton 2D tip.
All my nozzles - Wilton 1M and 2D bottom left and right
The Wilton 2D tip is the one that gives the rose swirl effect cupcake, like this – I think these look amazing and I’m excited to try it on a real cupcake!
The first nozzle I tested was the Wilton 1M
As you can see it has a wide star tip – the tip you buy doesn’t necessarily have to be a Wilton tip – one of my Lakeland ones gives a similar, if not even better swirl, but it needs to look similar.
Here’s the first swirl with the Wilton 1M nozzle (on top of a jar of pasta sauce!) – as you can see its *pretty* much the perfect cupcake swirl. Any lack of perfection is down to my technique and not the nozzle. If you don’t already have any nozzles and you’re interested in making cupcakes, this is definitely a great nozzle to get. I got mine on ebay in a set with the 2d for £8 for both, including postage. You can get it here.
You can also see a great tutorial on how to pipe the perfect swirl with the Wilton 1M here on the Wilton website.
Onto the Wilton 2D!
Ever since I’ve (only fairly recently, in the past couple of months) been seeing amazing pictures (and getting amazing birthday cupcakes from Star Bakery!) of lovely rose swirl cupcakes, I’ve been dying to know how you get this amazing effect. I was very surprised to learn that its (apparently) as simple as a certain kind of nozzle! Of course the technique counts as well – check out my effort below
Mine is fairly awful compared to a really good rose swirl, but this is my first attempt! You can see a really great tutorial on how to do a better rose swirl here at Bella Cupcakes site!
Next up is the first nozzle from my Lakeland set which looks like a spoke at the top. To my surprise, this shape gave a really really great swirl! Maybe even better than the Wilton 1M swirl? What do you think?
Its so swirly whirly, I’m mesmerised!
Next up is the second nozzle from Lakeland which is just a wide hole. I was quite dismayed to see my nemesis (after fondant) – the poo cupcake
Just wrong
I’ve always been mystified in the past when I’ve been into or seen pictures on blogs / of fancy cupcake bakeries where they’ve decorated their cupcakes with this nozzle. There’s only one possible outcome – no matter what fantastic colour your frosting is, it will always look like poo.
Seriously – does anyone know what you would use this nozzle for – other than an occasion when you’d WANT cupcakes that look like poo, of course!
Anyone?
Phew! Lets get back on track with Lakeland nozzle#3 which looks like a central star tip.
At this point both my hands, clothes, hair and camera are coated in a layer of frosting, as you can see.
Just for you.
You’re welcome!
And here’s the swirl!
Its okay, but I think you’ll agree that the Wilton 1M and the Lakeland#1 tips both give much better swirls.
Next up is Lakeland nozzle#4 which looks quite similar to the Wilton 1M – It also gives a good cupcake swirl!
Good swirl definition
Okay, next is Lakeland nozzle#5 which looks pretty much like Lakeland nozzle#1 except that the spoke is thicker.
If you understand me.
My hands are now completely covered in frosting.
Next up is Lakeland nozzle #6
Its another circle one 
You know what that means!
Moving on…
Finally, we have Lakeland nozzle#7!
I still have no idea what shape this was supposed to make even AFTER I tried it.
I mean it was a hot day and the buttercream was definitely getting melty but really…
Anyone?
So there you have it – IN CONCLUSION, the best nozzles for the perfectest, most professional looking cupcake swirl is the Wilton 1M. You can also achieve a similar (or even better?) effect with any nozzle which looks like it has a spoke shape at the end like Lakeland nozzle#1.
Once you have your nozzles, watch and read tutorials, practice practice practice and before you know it, you will be creating cupcakes with the perfect swirl!
[...] been thinking about cupcakes a lot lately…. this post which I did last summer is still the most popular one on my entire blog! I know, even more popular [...]
i make cupcakes and have been looking for a decent rose effect nozzle. my dad has just brought these at the wkend for me…and thanks to you..i now know what im doing..!! Thanks so much for this wonderful information….
xx
lisa
Thank you Lisa, what a lovely comment!
Thanks so much for this post! Getting the swirl right on a cupcake is something that I have always struggled with… I’m bookmarking this for sure!
I’ve just bought the Lakeland nozzles and was thinking I was going to have to test them all out before deciding the best one for the cakes I was icing, then I came across your blog which was really, really helpful and I could quickly see the style of each. A great big thank you to you,you saved me time and my Easter cakes look great! ( totally agree that the Lakeland #1 is excellent!)
Aw thanks Jo, what a lovely comment!
hi Kerry,
having tried lots and made plenty of boo boos along the way here are my two bits on your try out. The orsting you are using seems a little too runny for these large tips. hence the slump in the ‘poo’ and the curls of the swirls. In some cases i can see a cracks on the ridge of the swirls (the pointed edges) which also could be due to the consistency.
The round nozzles are good to make dots and even petals for flowers using the shell border technique.
The lakeland nozzle 7 can be used for shell borders and is similar to Wilton nozzle 98
Great post! I have a few mystery tips myself. I haven’t been brave enough to try them though. I always end up with ol’ faithful, Wilton 1M or the poop tip.
I was thinking the mystery #7 nozzle might be for piping a border on a flat surface, if you put the mushed in side down. The bottom side is flat, and it has ridges on the top of it.
So many different choices!! I liked the one that looked like poo.
Did you EAT all that icing? LOL!
I ate a good amount of it… I felt pretty sick that afternoon!
Kerry – I have only just read this and I had to contain myself from laughing like a lunatic at work when I saw your ‘poo cupcake’ comment! Hahaha!
I am still trying to master icing cupcakes – it’s just soo hard! *throws hands in the air*
Haha! Glad I made you laugh
Icing cupcakes is hard, the picture you have in your head is difficult to translate to reality. If you practice and get a Wilton 1M from eBay though you’ll get a lot better! x
The round nozzles are not intended to make poo cakes! They are used for piping choux for profiteroles or buns, and the smaller one for filling said cakes!
Thanks Sarah! I knew there had to be a practical use for them!
Great post! love your comments about the ‘poo cupcake’ nozzle!! I’d been thinking the exact same thing when I tested out my Lakeland nozzles, but I think they might actually have a use…
I’ve been reading a lovely book called Miette (San Francisco bakery), and they use plain-ish nozzles to pipe buttercream filling in between sandwich cake layers, so they get an even distribution around the visible edge.
Thanks for your comment Jenny!! I always feel bad when I see people with ‘poo cupcakes’ as they obviously think they look good!!
I’ve read about Miette on Bakerella’s blog – their stuff looks amazing!
Lakeland 7 nozzle looks like a shell nozzle for decorating around the sides of cakes no idea how to use it on cupcakes
Thanks for the tips!!! I always bake cupcakes, but they often end up looking quite sad. Bookmarking this page and putting it to good use!
Thanks Emily! How come – too small? I always fill the cases two thirds full, and I have good results with the hummingbird bakery recipe for vanilla cupcakes
I use the big fat round one for piping my macaroons. Also think churros and funnel cake. Think outside the cupcake box! If you have a looser buttercream mix the effect is much better on cupcakes as it settles slightly, look at Georgetown Cupcakes- they don’t use any fancy swirls just the basic swirl. Don’t forget to use your nozzles for posh mashed potatoes (who really pipes potatoes? SMH
Ha I can’t even mash potatoes let alone pipe them! Thanks for the tips!
The small round one is probably for piping out letters and words on a big flat cake. The big round one probably gives a nice smooth basic tube of icing around the borders of a cake or to fill in a seam between layers or something.
On a cupcake they probably are always going to look like poo if you mound them up.
Brilliant post kerry! I’ve been hunting down the cheapest wilton 1M I can find on ebay recently! Problem being a student is, that if it goes over £2 I don’t want to buy it haha! Though now I’ve seen just how fab it is I guess £8 is definitely value for money!!!
I think (though I may be wrong) that Lakeland #7 is used to do those nice decorative ribbons around cakes.
A bit like the edges of this one (http://www.google.co.uk/imgres?q=iced+celebration+cake&um=1&hl=en&sa=N&biw=1114&bih=702&tbm=isch&tbnid=1WIt2SRlMyzu8M:&imgrefurl=http://www.thecakestation.co.uk/&docid=qIBt3jOUH7LoeM&w=400&h=300&ei=ADA1TonLDIqwhQf-hu2UCw&zoom=1&iact=rc&dur=120&page=3&tbnh=164&tbnw=217&start=33&ndsp=12&ved=1t:429,r:2,s:33&tx=156&ty=127)
Once again thanks for a great post!
Hey! You’re welcome – glad you liked it!
I did look for the cheapest possible Wilton 1M too… I don’t think £4 inc postage is TOO bad though, especially considering it will last for years I’m sure!
Oh – and feel free to borrow mine if you need to!
Fab blog post. I wanna go ice things now!
Love your breakdown of the different nozzles – had no idea what all mine did!
Thanks Emma! I think the lesson is you only really need the wilton 1 (or similar)!
I really don’t want to see any frosting for a while now though!
I never thought a post about icing a cake (I mean, pasta sauce jar lid) would be quite this entertaining. I can’t believe your stamina at using all these nozzles. Love it! My favourite is the Wilton 1M and 2D x
Lol, glad you found it entertaining! It took agggeeeess! Completely agree on the wilton ones, think I’ll stick with those and the lakeland #1 from now on. I’m sure the other nozzles must have some use but I’m not sure what it is!