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You won’t believe how simple it is to make these Easy Flower Cupcakes that come out looking like you bought them from a high-end bakery.

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These Easy Flower Cupcakes are perfect for Mother’s Day. They’re also great for Weddings, Birthdays, Valentine’s day, baby showers, and so much more. They are not only beautiful but they’re delicious, too – best of all, they’re easy to make!

I will include instructions on making two types of flowers that are super easy to pipe. One with mini roses (pictured above) and one with a larger flower similar to chrysanthemums or mums (shown below).

a cupcake with a white flower piped onto it

The Easy Flower Cupcakes recipe at the bottom of the post includes a basic cupcake recipe. It can be made using vanilla extract or citrus zest for a fruity variation. I use my easy buttercream frosting, but you can use any recipe you like best for both the frosting and the cupcakes.

Practice Makes Perfect

To keep these cupcakes achievable for all skill levels, I didn’t practice using the piping tips before shooting the video or photos. I just piped and adjusted my method as I worked. Even the worst results still looked beautiful. In the image below the flowers aren’t as defined as in the photo at the top of the post, but they’re pretty all the same.

cupcakes with pink frosting flowers on them

That said – The first flowers anyone pipes never look perfect. If you’re new to piping, try practicing before adding any color. Practice piping onto some parchment paper so you can scrape the frosting back into the bowl when you’re done. Then let the frosting firm up in the fridge before piping it onto your cupcakes. If you need more information on using a piping bag, this video by Wilton is perfect.

Equipment Needed

Below is a list of everything you’ll need to make these Easy Flower Cupcakes. Just a heads up – the pink links below are affiliate links, which means I make a small commission if you make a purchase.

Cupcake Liners – choose cupcake liners made from greaseproof paper for easy removal.
Frosting – You’ll need about 3 cups of frosting for 12 cupcakes.
Piping Bags – You will need three piping bags. The link is for the bags I use. I suggest using 16? piping bags instead smaller ones. If you don’t want to buy piping bags, you can also put the piping tips in a food storage bag by cutting the corner to fit.
Gel Food Coloring – The set linked includes 12 colors, but I only used pink and green. A little goes a long way, so add gradually to build
Flower-Shaped Frosting Nozzles – The set linked has the mini rose tip and the leaf tip I used. They are also known as Russian piping tips, not because they come from Russia but because they are rumored to have been invented there.
Wilton Decorating Tip Number 81 – This is a half-moon shape tip that I used to make the petals for the white flowers, and it’s also known as a curved ribbon tip.

Choosing The Right Frosting

Frosting with a medium to firm consistency works best when piping frosting. If your frosting is too soft, there may be less detail in your flowers. When making homemade frosting, watch your mixture to tell if your frosting is firm enough. As it gets firmer, it will form peaks as beaters move away from the sides of the bowl. The stiffer the peaks are, the stronger the frosting.
When in doubt, put your filled piping bag in the fridge for a few minutes to firm up the frosting. If the frosting gets too soft while working, stick the bag back in the fridge for a few more minutes.

Step By Step Instructions

Below are very detailed instructions. Watch the video, and you’ll see, they’re pretty easy! My son is 13 and never touched a piping bag in his life. He piped half the cupcakes, and I bet you’d never know who piped what!

Start by baking your cupcakes. Allow them to cool completely before starting to frost them.

Place a half cup of frosting into a bowl. Mix it with the green food coloring a little at a time until it reaches the desired color.

Place one cup of the frosting in another bowl. Mix it with a little of the pink food coloring until it reaches your preferred color.

a bowl of green frosting and a bowl of pink frosting

I actually went a step further. I took a half cup of the frosting reserved for pink and mixed it just until the color looked marbled. This step is optional.

white frosting streaked with pink on a spatula

Select the rose piping tip from the Flower-Shaped Frosting Nozzles.

Then place the rose tip into the piping bag.

Line the inside of the piping bag with the pink frosting (leaving a well in the middle).

If you’ve made two pinks, just place one around the outside and layer the 2nd color.

a piping bag with a layer of pink frosting

Fill the well in the piping bag with white frosting. This will create roses with a deeper outer edge. This gives them a professional-looking finish.
If you don’t want to bother with all that, you can just use all pink frosting.

To pipe the mini roses, hold the piping bag straight down (instead of at an angle). Then squeeze, and pull up quickly, releasing the pressure as you go up. Begin piping flowers from the center of the cupcake, working your way to the outside. See the video for a visual guide.

a pink flower being piped onto a cupcake

Shorter flowers seemed to look the most defined to me. The gaps are ok. You can fill them in with leaves later.

Use the green frosting in a piping bag fitted with a leaf tip. The one I used is pictured below, but any leaf tip is fine.

Hold the piping bag fitted with a leaf tip at a slight upward angle from the cupcake. The two points of the tip should be vertical (resembling a bird’s open beak).

a piping bag piping leaves onto a cupcake with flowers

Fill in gaps between flowers by squeezing the bag firmly to form the base of the leaf. Release the tension as you go up to create the leaf’s tip.

a cupcake covered in mini frosting roses

To Make the white flowers, use a piping bag filled with white frosting fitted with the curved ribbon tip.

Hold the piping bag in a horizontal position slightly above the cupcake, squeeze, applying a steady, even pressure, and pipe the petals in rings around the cupcake, holding the tip so that the opening of the curve faces the center of the cupcake (see the video for an example).

a piping bag piping a flower onto a cupcake

Start from the outside and work your way to the center until the flower is formed.

a white flower being piped onto a cupcake with a piping bag

On some of my cupcakes, I filled in the center using the pink mini rose tip, and for others, I left all white with leaf accents. The choice is your’s – be creative and have fun!

one cupcake flower that's white and one with a pink center

Erren’s Top Tips

Cool your cupcakes completely before frosting – If you add frosting to a warm cupcake, it will cause the frosting to melt and sag your flowers.
Practice piping with frosting that hasn’t been colored yet. Pipe onto some parchment paper, then scrape the frosting back into the bowl when you’re done.
Use frosting with a medium to firm consistency to pipe flowers.
If the frosting gets too soft while working with it, stick the piping bag in the fridge for a few minutes to firm it back up.
If you need more information on using a piping bag, this video by Wilton is excellent.

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