How to pipe a simple rainbow cupcake swirl

Rainbow cakes and cupcakes are incredibly popular in at the moment, and have been for quite some time with no sign of slowing down. They are so popular that I’ve dedicated an entire playlist to Rainbow Themed Food on my YouTube channel, full of rainbow inspiration.

Today I’m sharing with you a super easy, fuss free method of achieving a simple rainbow swirl, using 3 colours of frosting and just one piping bag.

You can use a round piping tip for a smooth swirl effect, a star shape like I’ve used for a sundae style swirl, and of course, you can change the colours to suit any theme or colour scheme – think ombre, army camouflage, 4^th of July and a whole lot more!

You can watch the full comprehensive video tutorial below, or you can read on below for step by step instructions

 Tools, Equipment and Ingredients you’ll need for this tutorial are:

Piping bag
Star piping tip – I used a Loyal # 15 thermo tip
3 Teaspoons
1 Tablespoon
3 Bowls
Buttercream frosting
Cupcakes to frost – whatever flavour you like
Food colour – I used liquid colours, blue, yellow and pink but you can use any type of colouring you like.

Step 1

Prepare your coloured frosting by evenly dividing the vanilla frosting into 3 separate bowls and adding colour till you reach your preferred level of brightness.

Tip: Be careful if using liquid colours as they can water down your frosting a  little. If this happens, simply add additional icing sugar and mix thoroughly to thicken the frosting back up again.

Step 2

Insert your chosen piping tip into your piping bag – I prefer to use clear disposable piping bags for this, so I can see the way the colours are mixing inside the bag

Step 3

Take a spoon and add your desired amount of your first colour, ensuring you keep it to one side of the piping bag.  Don’t push the icing all the way down into the piping tip just yet

Step 4 

Take your next spoon and add the same amount of your second colour into the piping bag, touching the first colour but still leaving an even amount of space for the final colour

Step 5

Add your third colour, trying to keep the colours fairly even and level in the bag.

Step 6

Lay your piping bag flat and gently push the colours together with your fingertips until they just start to combine

Step 7

Twist the end of the piping bag to seal the frosting in, and do a “test squeeze” in a spare bowl until you see all three colours appear out the end of the piping tip at the same time. Your rainbow frosting is ready to pipe!

Step 8

Starting in the centre of the cupcake, make a swirl of frosting that doesnt quite cover the edges of your cupcake.

Step 9

Continue to decorate as desired

In my opinion these cupcakes require no additional decoration as the rainbow of colours is striking enough, but feel free to add different toppers and sprinkles to make these gorgeous rainbow swirl cupcakes suit any occasion you like.

I hope you like this easy, fun frosting technique! If you love it, please LIKE and SHARE on your social media.

If you have any questions about this tutorial, please watch the video above – if you don’t find your answer then feel free to comment below and I will do my best to answer.

Xxx Elise