Step by step: how to ice cupcakes
- Fill your piping bag with icing and add a shaped nozzle to the end – we like using a star nozzle.
- Hold the piping bag at the top with your writing hand. You’ll use your other hand to guide the nozzle around the cupcake.
- Working from the outside in, pipe the icing around the edge of the cupcake, working your way towards the middle. Make sure the icing rings overlap – you don’t want gaps!
- When you reach the centre of the cupcake, bring your hand up sharply to make a little peak.
- Why not use your newfound skill in the recipe below?
CHOCOLATE AND VANILLA CUPCAKES
40 minutes, makes 24, easy

butter 100g, at room temperature
caster sugar 100g
eggs 2
self-raising flour 100g
cocoa powder 2 tbsp
vanilla essence a few drops
white chocolate 200g, melted
dark chocolate 200g, melted
silver balls to decorate
step 1
Heat the oven to 180c/fan 160c/gas 4. Cream the butter and sugar together, then beat in the eggs and flour. Divide the mix into 2 and add the cocoa to one half and the vanilla to the other. Add a drop of milk to the chocolate mix if it is too stiff.
step 2
Spoon into mini muffin tins lined with paper cases, making some chocolate and some vanilla. Bake for 8 minutes. Cool.
step 3
Dip the vanilla cakes in dark chocolate and the chocolate ones in white chocolate. Decorate with buttons or sprinkles.