Browse Decorating Techniques

Chicken

Difficulty: Easy

Chickens provide perfect practice for building up figure piped bodies and heads. You’ll then add a tapered tail and bead-motion wings, for a nicely-detailed bird. These playful chickens can be make ahead of time using Royal Icing as shown below, but they can also be done directly on your cake or cupcakes using Buttercream Icing, just omit the feet.

Chicks

Difficulty: Somewhat Easy

The perfect addition to your baby shower, farm theme or Easter cupcakes. These chicks can be piped directly on your cake or cupcakes. You can also do them ahead of time in Royal Icing to save time.

Chicks Sitting

Difficulty: Medium

This fun fowl is easy to figure pipe directly on your cake using stiff buttercream. Or, you can make them in advance using stiff royal icing on a waxed paper-covered cake board. If made in advance, be sure to store them away from bright or fluorescent light to prevent colors from fading.

Christmas Trees

Difficulty: Easy

Grow a forest of Christmas Trees using ice cream cones as your base. Cut the cone to any size—just dampen to where the base will be and use a scissors or a small paring knife to cut around the cone.

Chrysanthemum (Mum)

Difficulty: Medium

The Chrysanthemum is a fall classic that’s easier to pipe than you would think. The secret to success--the curved opening of specialty tip #81 used with a simple leaf-making motion.

Circus Clown

Difficulty: Easy

A Clown looks great sitting up or laying down! Use the basic upright or horizontal technique to position the body, add arms, legs and ruffles, then top him off with our Small Derby Clowns head pick.

Climbing Leaf Border

Difficulty: Easy

Update the classic leaf border with added lushness. Build rows of graceful foliage from the bottom of your cake, leading to a row of your favorite flowers.

Clown Candy Face

Difficulty: Somewhat Easy

It´s the big top for your cupcake - a jolly jester decorated on a candy face made in our Melting Plate.

Combing a Cake

Difficulty: Easy

Create a textured surface on the cake sides.

Corn

Difficulty: Somewhat Easy

Try our golden ears of corn on your cakes and cupcakes—for summertime or Thanksgiving. The easy bead kernels and pull-out leaves create a freshly-picked look.

Cornelli Lace

Difficulty: Somewhat Easy

The perfect look for formal presentations, such as wedding and anniversary cupcakes. The precise, lacy design of this freehand technique depends on the continuous curving strings that do not overlap or touch.

Covering Cupcakes with a Round Tip Swirl

Difficulty: Easy

Your homemade cupcakes will be even more tempting when you add a pretty peak of icing on top! We used tip 2A here, but any large round tip will work.

Cow Heads

Difficulty: Somewhat Easy

Figure pipe cow heads using a variety of basic techniques, including shell motion head and petal motion ears, dot features and pull-out hair.

Creating Color Effects

Difficulty: Difficult

Use food-safe Wilton Pearl Dust and Color Dust to brush or paint hints of contrasting color on your decorations.

Creating Lattice on the Side of a Cake

Difficulty: Somewhat Difficult

The intersecting teardrop shapes provide heightened texture, especially if you fill in the spaces between teardrops with sugar pearls or piped dots or stars.

Dog

Difficulty: Somewhat Easy

A dog is also a decorator’s best friend—it’s so easy to figure pipe on a cupcake or cake. A series of balls and oblong shapes, topped off with pull-out dot fur, is all you need to pipe this pup.