Icing recipe from AllRecipes.com

1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened

1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract

2 cups confectioners’ sugar

2 tablespoons soy milk – unsweetened

Wilson’s gel food coloring – sky blue



Decorating

Sanding sugar or sugar crystal sprinkles

White Wilson’s decorator icing, or homemade Royal Icing

Icing

Cream room temperature butter with a hand mixer, the paddle attachment of a stand mixer, or a wooden spoon until smooth and fluffy. Gradually beat in confectioners’ sugar until fully incorporated. Beat in vanilla extract.

Pour in soy milk and beat for an additional 3-4 minutes. Add gel food coloring using a toothpick and beat for thirty seconds until smooth or until desired color is reached. If needed, add more food coloring.

Fill decorator bag with star decorating tip and about 1 cup of icing. twist top to add pressure and avoid air pockets. Test the icing first before starting to ice the cupcakes to make sure it is exactly what you want and that you have control of the bag.

Starting with the outside of the cupcake, slowly spiral inward. When you get to the center, stop. Then create a smaller circle of icing to add volume without piling on mountains of icing.



Decorating

Sprinkle sugar sprinkles on top for a snow-affect. Allow cupcakes to sit for 30 minutes before further decorating. When the icing is set, get ready for snowflakes! Fill a new decorator bag with a #3 or #5 decorator tip and 1/3 cup of decorator icing. Twist and prepare to ice. To create the snowflake, hold your decorator bag at a 45 degree angle and draw out a cross, slowly. Next draw an X over the top of the cross. Add two arrows pointing to the outside of the cupcake at the tip of each line for the full snowflake affect. You can also do tiny Xs or dots at the ends for further styling. At this point you can either choose to leave your snowflakes white, or brush with silver decorating powder for extra shine.

I am very slowly starting to teach myself how to decorate cupcakes. This is my best attempt yet, but by far, not professional. I loved the buttercream icing, not too sweet and easy to decorate with. According to a coworker, the icing is the perfect sweetness and the sugar sprinkles add a surprising bite of sweetness. He loved that touch even though I only did it for looks. 🙂

The snowflakes were extremely hard on my hands while decorating. You’re definitely in for a workout! I recommend practicing on parchment paper first to get the hang of it. Practice until you are satisfied with your snowflakes. I tried about 5 styles before I liked one and then practiced that one another 5 times before adding to the cupcakes.

A special thanks to my friend, The Iced Queen, for her advice on cupcake decorating and for sharing her awesome snowflakes, gelt and recipes. For more detailed and exciting cake decorating tutorials and examples, visit her blog.

If you have any tips, tricks, feedback or advice, I’d love to know! I don’t pretend to be an expert at anything and cake decorating is definitely new to me. 🙂

PS If you’d like to use the same cake recipe I used see this Chocolate Cake recipe. It is delicious and super moist.