Baking and decorating gorgeous and fun cupcakes as gifts, birthday treats or holiday desserts can get a little time consuming if you have a whole list of other commitments. Cupcakes may seem simple, quick and small, but they still take a good amount of time and effort.
If you’re looking to shave some minutes off of your decorating time or stress less about creating pretty petite cupcakes then look no further than these cupcake decorating and baking hacks, tips and tricks you can’t live without!
Cupcake decorating, hacks, tips and tricks you can’t live without!
Hack, tip or trick 01: To freeze or not to freeze?
If you’ve sign up to make hundreds of cupcakes for a friend’s party or get together try baking your cupcakes a week in advance and freezing them. This is especially handy when you don’t have a helping hand on offer too. Pre-bake your cupcakes, leave them to fully cool down, add to large flat Tupperware boxes and stack inside of your freezer!
Hack, tip or trick 02: Custom color!
Add some custom color or pearlescent shine to your sprinkles by adding blossom or luster dust to a zip lock bag along with white sugar pearls or sprinkles. Shake and sprinkle on your finished cupcakes! This is fabulously handy if you’ve ran out of a certain color.
Hack, tip or trick 03: Messy chic!
Not too confident about piping pristine cupcakes? One easy and quick option is to messy frost them. Simply take a small palette knife to add a dollop of fresh buttercream on top of your cupcake and over the top by smoothing the frosting to and fro. Add sprinkles and move on!
Hack, tip or trick 04: Pipe dreams!
If you find filling up your cupcake cases with batter time consuming and messy why not try piping the batter in? Fill a large piping bag with cupcake batter and pipe into each case. This tip is great if you don’t have a batter dispenser or even an ice cream scoop too.
Hack, tip or trick 05: Get on the case!
Baking large batches of cupcakes for a wedding or commercial event? Why not line your cupcake pans the night before and cover with foil to protect them. When it comes to baking just fill them up and bake!
Hack, tip or trick 06: It’s a wrap!
Dress up your cupcakes with lovely cupcake wraps created using a doily! Simply cut a large circular doily in half, cut away the center, wrap around your cupcake and secure with a dab of royal icing or even tie a chic ribbon bow around the outside of your cake.
Hack, tip or trick 07: Melt away!
To make super quick, fun and easy cupcake decorations all you need is candy melts, a microwave, a microwavable jug, spoon, a silicone mold and a freezer! Simply melt your candy buttons, stir, spoon into your mold and leave to set in a freezer for around 15 minutes. Pop each candy melt shape out and nestle into your buttercreamed cupcake. Hey presto…gorgeously decorated cupcakes in almost no time at all!
Hack, tip or trick 08: Smooth secret!
If you’ve chilled or even frozen your buttercream to utilize a couple days later you’ll find it looking a little dismal and disappointing, but depending on your cupcake flavors you can take your buttercream from drab to fab with one simple ingredient: good quality melted chocolate!
Add in the melted chocolate and mix using a stand-up mixer for around 30 seconds. If chocolate just won’t do then a couple tablespoons of boiling water and some oil-based extract goes a long way too!
Hack, tip or trick 09: It’s a wrap!
If you’ve just noticed that you’re running out of disposable piping bags and find yourself lost in a panic fear not! This quick trick will help make your bags last that little bit longer. Take some cling film and add your buttercream to the center, fold the film over and wrap into a tube shape before twisting each end, slide into your piping bag fitted with a tip so that some of the twisted end of the cling film or plastic wrap feeds through, snip and squeeze!
When you’re finished simply pull the buttercream filled plastic wrap out of the top opening of your piping bag and re-use the bag!
Hack, tip or trick 10: Core issue!
To fill cupcakes you generally need a good cupcake corer, but if you’re new to making cupcakes or simply don’t create them that often you may not have one of these nifty gadgets in your drawer. Don’t worry though as you can easily core your home baked cakes using a large round cupcake piping tip! Push the tip piping end down into the very center of a cupcake halfway, twist and pull up! Easy peasy!
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