How to Frost a Cupcake

Cupcakes are one of my favourite desserts to make. I love that they contain all the components of a cake in a simple and easy to eat format. Through spending countless hours on Instagram and reading various blogs, I've noticed that every baker frosts their cupcakes slightly differently, adding in their own style and signature look. Georgetown cupcakes is a great example of a bakery that has branded its cupcakes with their signature frosting look. If you are familiar with their cupcakes, you can tell right away if something is from their bakery. When frosting cupcakes, I tend to reach for my Wilton 1B tip. I love that it gives a beautiful swirled look with just the perfect amount of frosting for your cupcake. In the video below, I show you how I prepare and fill my piping bag and frost my cupcakes.  Feel free to use the buttercream recipe of your choice. If you don't have a favourite - I posted about my favourite buttercream recipe earlier this week. It has the perfect consistency for frosting cupcakes to achieve my signature swirled look.

Do you have a signature frosting swirl for your cupcakes? Share below in the comments or over on Instagram with #ByJaclyn!

Marble Sugar Cookie Tutorial

These might be my favourite sugar cookies to date! Not only are they super simple to make - hello limited to no piping! They are also a total show stopper if I do say so myself. I was scrolling through Pinterest the other day when I came across prints with a marble background and gold sayings, and I just knew I had to turn them into a cookie. If you are short on time or are still new to cookie decorating these sugar cookies can be made even simpler by leaving off the gold sayings. I love that each cookie is unique - just like marble!

I put together a short video to show you the process of making these marble sugar cookies - which I have shared below. The video shows a step by step process on how I made these marble sugar cookies. I had a lot of fun putting it together and I hope you enjoy it! 

Marble Sugar Cookie Decorating Tutorial 

What You'll Need:

Sugar Cookies

White Royal Icing (Flood Consistency)

Black Gel Colouring

Small Shallow Bowl

Toothpicks

Ivory Royal Icing (Piping Consistency)

Piping Bag

Small Round Tip (I used PME 00)

Gold Luster Dust

Small, Food Safe Paint Brush

Directions:

1. Fill your bowl with your white royal icing. Use your tooth pick to dot/swirl your black gel food colouring into your icing.

2. Holding your sugar cookie by the edges, dip it into the your swirled royal icing.

3. Carefully shake your cookie to remove any excess icing.

4. Allow your cookies to dry on a flat surface. Note - they may take longer to dry then usual as dipping the cookies deposits more icing then flooding a sugar cookie normally would.

5. Prepare your ivory icing and fill your pipping bag.

6. Freehand your script onto your cookie.

7. Once your script is dry, paint with gold luster dust. (Mix luster dust with vodka, lemon juice or water to create paint.)

I'd love to see your Marble Sugar Cookies! Share them below in the comments or over on Instagram with #ByJaclyn!

Best Vanilla Buttercream

I have made this vanilla buttercream recipe more times then I can count. It is always my go to when making cupcakes and cakes. It pairs well with just about any flavour and is often my jumping off point for different flavour variations. My family and friends rave about this buttercream frosting. It is hard to beat a classic.  

How To Get Fluffy Frosting

The fluffy texture of this frosting is one of its best selling features. In order to get super fluffy frosting it is best to work with butter that is at room temperature. If your butter isn't at room temperature or you're impatient like me - cut your butter into small cubes and microwave on low in 10 second increments until your butter is softened. Be sure to watch it closely, you don't want your butter to melt! 

I use a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment to make my vanilla buttercream but you can get the same results using a hand mixer.  I mix my butter on a medium-high speed until it is light, fluffy and pale in colour. Scrape along the sides of the bowl at least once in between mixing to make sure you are incorporating the most air into your butter.

Using & Storing Your Buttercream

I find the 3 cups of icing sugar to 1 cup of butter ratio the perfect ratio for me when frosting cakes and cupcakes. If you would like your buttercream to be a little softer - add heavy cream one tablespoon at a time until you reach your desired consistency. If you would like a stiffer buttercream you can add additional icing sugar - just remember it will make your icing sweeter! I will be sharing a video on how I frost my cupcakes using this buttercream recipe later this week! When frosting cupcakes I generally gravitate towards the Wilton 1B tip - it is what I've used to frost the cupcake in this post. You can easily tint this buttercream using gel food colouring.  The recipe below creates enough buttercream to frost one dozen cupcakes or to fill and frost one 6 inch cake. Store any left over frosting in an air tight container for up to three days, in the fridge. Allow it to come to room temperature before you use it again. 

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The Best Vanilla Buttercream 

This vanilla buttercream frostings is super simple to make, incredibly fluffy and yields delicious results. 

Yield: Frosting for 1 dozen cupcakes
Time: 10 minutes

INGREDIENTS:

1 cup unsalted butter, at room temperature

3 cups icing sugar

2 teaspoons clear vanilla extract

1-3 tbsp heavy cream (optional)

DIRECTIONS:

In a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment beat butter on medium-high speed until light and fluffy

Beat in icing sugar, one cup at a time, until well combined

Beat in vanilla

Optional - beat in heavy cream 1 tbsp at a time until desired consistency is reached

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