It was my niece B’s birthday a few weeks back and we were having a small family gathering to celebrate before she headed out with friends. Everyone just puts in the cooking requests for family these days! See below for a list of my most requested items. Mum was hoping I could whizz up a couple of casserole dishes of mac and cheese to feed our hungry little hoard. B has been completely obsessed with my cinnamons scrolls and I knew I had to make them, even if they weren’t the main focus. A couple of people requested cupcakes because I make them so that are they groaning under mounds of buttercream – no one can resist! I got the idea in my head to make some pastel rainbow frosting for those unicorn vibes. I’m not sure why, I generally keep my frostings pretty simple and when I do go for something fancy, it’s usually super easy. Like the two tone ones I did for valentines day a few years back. But I knew that these pastel cupcakes were going to be so pretty and so worth the effort!
I have a roll of disposable piping bags at home that are pretty small. So initially I thought I’d just put each colour in its own bag and tie them off with an elastic, snip the tips and put them inside a much larger piping bag. The theory was good but both places I went to were sold out of large piping bags and I had no more time to fuss about it – I had two pans of mac and cheese, 24 cinnamon buns and 24 cupcakes to make and ice and it was already noon! I’d seen a few people use a method that uses plastic cling wrap to do multicolour. I already had that at home, so decided to give it a go!
I baked my cakes using this quick cheat method (no judgments, I had a lot to get baked!) and set them to cool. I made up my usual buttercream recipe but took extra beating time beating the butter before adding the icing sugar and extra time after. This makes a naturally whiter buttercream that makes for cleaner colours. I made 3 quantities of my usual recipe since I was icing 24 cupcakes generously and knew there would be some lost in practice and when you divide and colour etc. In the end, that was the perfect amount! I divided it into three bowls and coloured it with gel food colour. I went with pink, yellow and blue because I knew when they met there might be nice mingling of colours.
Pro Tip: Since the gel can be a bit streaky to mix, take out a tablespoon of icing to a tiny bowl and mix the colour into that first. Then add that back into the rest for a smooth colour.
I laid out some plastic wrap and laid out the icing in rows, keeping in mind the size of my piping bag. Some people put it into a piping bag first and pipe it into neat rows but I just didn’t want to waste that many bags. A spoon and my finger worked fine but do what works for you. Now roll the colours together into a log, keeping all the plastic wrap on the outside part of the icing. Some people hold the ends and spin it around, like a hard candy wrapper but I only lightly twisted one end. I fitted a piping bag with a Wilton 1M tip and carefully slid the icing log into it, open ish end first.
Then all you have to do it pipe your swirl! It’s a bit weird to be working with a log shape, rather than a full piping bag shape but it’s still just as easy. I have a super old video that demonstrates how I do my signature swirl if you need a visual. Because my piping bags are really small, I repeated the plastic wrap, icing rows thing three times but used the same piping bag for all 24. I couldn’t resist adding a little or even a lot of edible glitter (yes, there is debate on it’s edibility etc but do what is right for your family. We are sparkles first sort of people). I have a cupboard full of these sorts of supplies and I think I should use them up. I went with a pipe a single cupcake, sprinkle and repeat method, so the glitter would stick well. I collect tiny vintage mustard spoons and they are perfect for dusting sparkles.
OMG! How pretty did they turn out? I thought this kind of frosting would be really difficult but it’s quite easy. Sure, it’s a bit of a faff but it’s definitely worth it. I always put my cupcakes in cardboard cupcake boxes that I buy from a local bakingsupply shop that has boxes that fit 12, 9, 6 or a single cupcake. It makes them so much easier to transport without panic and it’s a lovely presentation. So of course I look all fancy with my boxed cakes and cinnamon scrolls to baked on arrival and then smelling like a warm hug from the oven. I’d like to say my family were so impressed but they are all used to this kind of thing and were busy getting the rest of the food prepped. Although, everyone agreed that the cupcakes were beautiful and the nieces were in there taking shots for snapchat and Instagram – aww! It always feels nice to have your work appreciated! But I really love the look of these and have some other pretties planned. If you have been thinking about trying some new frosting techniques, you should start with this because it really is much easier than I imagined!
Edit: I have also tried the Wilton Multi Colour Swirl Coupler, you can see how the two methods compare in this post.
Family Faves – These are among the most requested recipes for any family gathering:
- Double Drizzle Lemon Cake
- Raspberry, Macadamia & White Chocolate Cheesecake
- Donut Holes
- Four Cheese & Onion Tart
- Homemade Pizza
- Seven Layer Salad
- Tortilla Pie
- Brownies
- Cupcakes
- Cinnamon Scrolls
- Mac and Cheese
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