The first time I attempted to ice cupcakes with "swirls" I used the wrong kind of icing (a soft cream cheese) and the wrong kind of icing tip (straight and not very wide). So I ended up with a random selection of squiggles and shapes, which were fine (and delicious), but not what I was aiming for.
A little reading suggested that I would do much better with a Wilton 1M star tip and a buttercream icing recipe. So my first step was to go out and buy a Wilton 12-Piece Cupcake Decorating Set (for the princely sum of around $20), still a little dubious about the difference a special tip could make.
I had my vanilla cupcakes ready to go (my first time making these using a recipe from Little Betsy Baker) and I thought they might go nicely with Cupcake Gal's buttercream frosting, using rosewater essence instead of vanilla, and just a tiny bit of red food colouring to get a pretty pale pink. It came out looking like gloriously fluffy pink clouds.
Then I set about the task of actually creating my swirls. And might I just say - the 1M star tip is fantastic! I was very pleasantly surprised at how quick and easy it was to decorate each cake. They still look a little clumsy (I positioned the messiest ones furthest from the camera), but overall I was very happy with the results.
They also tasted really good! I think the vanilla cupcake recipe is a keeper - a nice standard flavour to dress up. The buttercream icing itself was a little softer than I would've liked, so I'll have to work on that. Very sweet too, which should maybe be toned down (depending on taste). I'd suggest using just 1 teaspoon of rosewater essence, or maybe even just 1/2 a teaspoon and see how it tastes.
