Recipe: Easy Tri Coloured Frosting Tutorial {Using the Wilton Multi Colour Swirl Coupler}

Just a few weeks ago I posted a tutorial for a three colour frosting using the plastic cling wrap method. That method worked beautifully and I really loved how those cupcakes turned out! I was excited about all the cool colour combos I could make and how fun the whole thing was. I’ll be honest, I was so happy about it all that I bored the crap out of my husband by excitedly explaining every detail. Don’t worry folks, I hear all about his 3D printing wins and woes too. It’s that special kind of boffinism that is reserved as a kind of privileged spousal abuse. Anyway, he must have been listening to my frosting story because he ordered me the Wilton Multi Colour Swirl Coupler set! Probably in the hope of never hearing about faffy frosting experiments again but I was pretty jazzed to have it and play around.

If you are not sure what I’m talking about, it’s a coupler that connects three separate bags of frosting to one tip. You can see it in action in this video from Wilton. You can buy the coupler on it’s own or the set comes with the coupler, a 1M and 1A tip and 6 disposable piping bags. I use the 1M tip almost all the time and find they get a bit out of shape over time, so it was nice to have a fresh one. The bags included are quite long and narrow but I feel like my smaller bags would be just fine and because each colour of icing is separate, you can refill as you work. Just a few days after this arrived in the mail, I was tasked with baking some cupcakes for my nephew’s birthday, a perfect opportunity to test things out!

As per last time, I baked a dozen cupcakes using this quick cheat method 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 1.5 quantities of my usual recipe since I was icing 12 cupcakes generously and knew there would be some lost in practice and when you divide and colour etc. I divided it into three bowls and coloured it with gel food colour. I went with violet, teal and royal blue this time.

I followed the instructions that came with the set and seated each of the three couplers into a piping bag (the ones it came with) and snipping the tip. I filled each with a different colour of frosting and clicked the three parts of the coupler together. It took me a second to get how they clip and then it was easy. I added my 1M tip and screwed on the top of the coupler. Wilton has these fancy rubber band things that close off the top of the piping bag and I don’t have those. I could see how a closure would be helpful, because you do need some pressure to work three bags at once, I found that a large chip clip from Ikea served well. The piping process went just as normal but feel like my usual buttercream was a bit too stiff, I think next time I will add a little more milk to thin it down. I think that the way the pressure from your hand is distributed across the three bags needs a softer texture and my buttercream is a stiff consistency. It made for some less than perfect piping but I’ll know for next time. Other than that, the results were perfect!

So was the Wilton coupler easier that the plastic wrap? Yes and no. I love that with the Wilton you can refill the piping bags easily but if you had a really big piping bag you could use the plastic wrap method easily too. Both ways are a little unwieldy to pipe but I think the plastic wrap way was slightly easier. Basically, I will use the coupler because I have it but if you want to keep your money and are prepared to faff a little, plastic wrap is fine.

I loved the deeper, darker colours this time, they are quite close on the colour wheel and I love the effect. Of course, I had to add a little sprinkle of sparkles! I went with an almost translucent edible glitter (please don’t tell me about edible glitter, we know & we are down with it) that shifts in a rainbow but mostly blues and greens. I considered it a masculine amount of shimmer! The birthday boy was all grins, so I feel like I did the right thing. His main sweet request was my dounut holes and I made a whopping four batches!  He stated that he wanted to take some to share at work but even though I sent him (and his brother) home with an entire salad bowl full to the brim, only a handful made it to work! I am 100% taking that as a compliment. Everyone has their birthday requests round here (see a list here) and I am always happy to honour them. If there is a full-size cake (me made or other) the candles go on that but if not, I always do at least 12 cupcakes for the candles. It’s so nice to be able to use different techniques and colours and make that fun. Everyone has different choices and with four niblings (nieces & nephews but collective, like siblings), Mum, Sister and Mr Ask, I am kept on my toes and looking for new techniques. If you have this coupler set, how do you use it? If not, would you buy it?