MAR
15
Kitchen Tip: Two Tone Frosting for Cupcakes
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After I posted the Lemon Coconut Cupcakes that I made for Logan’s birthday so many of you asked: How did you make the two-toned color icing for those cupcakes?
The two tone technique for decorating cupcakes is really a lot easier than you might think and it is so fun. Besides looking pretty, you can flavor the frosting differently to add so much flavor to the recipe. Think cream cheese and blueberry buttercream. Or Lemon and Vanilla buttercream. Raspberry Buttercream with Chocolate.
So I put together a quick kitchen tip to show you how. This time using a new recipe, which I’ll share later this week: Nutella Cupcakes with Nutella, Almond Butter, and Vanilla Cream Cheese Frosting.
Kitchen Tip: How to Pipe with Two or More Frosting Types
1. Lay your colors or flavors out in different container to keep them separate.
2. Using the tip for filling piping bags in the Cupcake Piping Tricks kitchen tip, fill the bags (I personally like disposable best) with your designated colors or flavors.
- You will not add a tip to any of these bags. Just the bag and the frosting.
- For bags I like CIA Masters Collection 12 Inch Disposable Pastry Bags or Wilton Disposable 12 Inch Decorating Bags, Pack Of 24. I buy them on Amazon but you can get the Wilton bags at craft stores like Michaels too.
- In this case, I had three frosting flavors: Nutella Cream Cheese, Almond Butter Cream Cheese, and Vanilla Cream Cheese. So after this step I end up with 3 bags each filled with a different flavor.
3. Twist the tops of the bags and cut about a half inch of the ends of each filled bag.
4. Then, you’ll take (in this case) a fourth bag. Snip the end of the bag and add your favorite piping tip to the bag.
5. Now, load all three frosting bags inside the fourth bag with the piping tip.
- Twist the top of the fourth bag so nothing escapes and pipe as usual.
- I usually do a couple of test pipes on a napkin or a cupcake I don’t care about until all three frostings are evenly coming out and any air has passed.
Any questions?
I can’t wait to share the new cupcake recipe with you! The combo of the nutella, almond butter (you could use peanut butter, but Logan is allergic) and cream cheese frosting was absolutely amazing!
About the Author:
Katie’s lifelong interest in cooking good food has shown her that part of the goodness in life is enjoying delicious food with friends and family. She is: Writer. Photographer. Recipe Developer. Website Founder. Lover of all things good in life. Wife & Mom. A mix of great recipes, family memories, and yummy photography is what Katie serves up each week at GoodLife Eats™. Katie resides in Colorado with her husband and two children.
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Hello! I'm Katie Goodman, author of GoodLife Eats Etc. where I share what I find in my life. A mix of great recipes, family memories, adventures, good reads, and anything else that I love is what you will discover here.
This is a great tip, Katie. I would assume this works best with the larger tips, but it is VERY VERY cool. I really need to get some of the bigger tips.
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So pretty- thanks for the tip!
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Wonderful tip!
those frostings sound delicious!! 
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That is something I would have never thought of on my own but it sounds so easy! Thanks!
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Thanks so much for the awesome how-to! I never would have thought a multi-swirled frosting was something I could manage to put together in my own kitchen, without tons of extra tools. An excuse to make more cupcakes!
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Thanks for you tip, always wondered how they do that! I’ve been wanting to take a class on how to ice cakes and cup cakes, looks like your posts are doing just fine. Again thanks!
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What a great tip!! I can’t wait to try it out!
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Cool! Thanks for sharing this tip! I love learning new baking/decorating tips. BTW, the cupcake looks delish!
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great tip! I’ve never seen how to do this, but it looks so much easier than I imagined.
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Brilliant.
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Wow, this is so easy! I’ve seen tutorials before where people have put both colors of frosting in the same bag, and I knew I’d never be able to pull that off. I can’t wait to try this!!!
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Katie replied: — March 15th, 2011 @ 8:33 AM
I’ve seen that too, but what are you supposed to do if you have to reload one of the colors? This is SO easy with bags inside the main bag.
Love this tip and I can’t wait to see the cupcake recipe!!
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I love this. Swirled frosting is intriguing
great tip
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That looks beautiful!
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I have been baking and decorating cupcakes, cakes, etc. for a long time…….this is a great tip !!! I think I’ve tried putting two colors in one frosting bag, and it was not pretty !! I will try this !
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A clever idea and the flavors sound amazing.
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I love your kitchen tips! I’ve never even thought to wonder how this was done before–I didn’t think I was clever enough to do it. Thanks for sharing!
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Thanks for the great tip! I can’t wait until the next time that I make cupcakes!
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Oh my God! You’re so clever! Now that’s thinking out of the (piping bags)! *applause*
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Great tip! Thank you very much. Never thought of doing something like this. From now on, I’ll have beautiful cupcakes and cakes!
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Such a cute idea, and what a wonderful tip!
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Are all the icing bags the same size or is the fourth one bigger?
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Katie replied: — March 15th, 2011 @ 2:01 PM
They are all the same size, just less full.
How clever! they look so pretty, I’ll definitely be trying this!
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Wow! That’s so cool! It looks amazing, but is surprisingly simple. The almond butter cream cheese sounds cool. I could try doing that with my dark chocolate almond butter. Thanks for the tip!
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That is genius! I can’t believe how easy that is! And, so adorable!
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I love this idea. I would love to have the receipe for the frostings.
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Great tip I’ll make sure to remember this
Can’t wait for the recipe!
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These are beautiful! I’m pretty bad at frosting cupcakes in a “traditional” fashion, so I wonder if I could handle this!!
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I can’t wait for the recipe and the cupcakes really are lovely. I was wondering how you did that! You are so smart and creative. Thanks for sharing your successes!
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That’s beautiful, I would have never guessed to do it that way, thanks for the tip. I always assumed the colors would be in the same bag, this is a really clever way to do it.
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I am loving the frosting in the different bags. I usually put all of different frostings directly in the same bag..But ohhhh, what a pain and it is MESSY! Love this.
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What a great tip! I love this.
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So pretty – thanks for the tips!!
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You are just so darling. Thanks for taking the time to share the steps. I’m working on the rainbow cookies right now and we made Dr. Seuss cupcakes. It’s been a lot of fun…
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Oh this is so fun! I never knew it was that easy!
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thanks very much for sharing this tip !! I’m prety sure I’d need practice before making such pretty decorations !!
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Love this!! Thanks
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Una deliziosa ricetta
ciao ☺
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So that’s how you make two-tone! Brilliant! Those cupcakes look scrumptious.
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Beautiful photo. Looks so tasty, love to have one right now.
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I definitely need to try this! I was wondering how you did this. Great and informative post!
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Thank you for the tips! I made some cream cheese frosting for some St. Patrick’s day green velvet cupcakes, and was able to make green and cream swirls thanks to your tutorial. The cupcakes are so elegant – I can’t wait to show them off tomorrow!
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always full of great tips katie! cheers kari
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Thanks for the tips..and great photo and very informative post!
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clever and beautiful
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Very nice technique and the result is eye appealing and delicious. Great post.
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Your cupcakes are beautiful! I can’t wait to try this on my own. Thanks for sharing your great kitchen tips!
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Katie, I find it so generous of you to share this with us! It is such a useful idea, sweetie! Your cupcakes are absolutely lovely.
xx
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Pure genius!!
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Smart! I will definitely have to try this out. It looks very pretty!
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You make it look so easy…and so amazing!!!
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I can’t add anything new but I have to agree with the other commentors – so simple, so clever and I never knew! Thankyou!
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Such a simple idea but I never would have thought of it!
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Katie, this is genius & so fun! Gotta try this technique
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this is genius! thanks for sharing the great tip! ill definitely be two-toning or even quadruple-toning my cupcakes now!
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This is so cool! Thanks for sharing. (Visiting from UCreateFoods)
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I love this idea….perfect timing, as I have two girls having birthdays at the end of the month. These will make beautiful and delicious treats for them! Thanks for the great tip!
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Thanks, Katie! This is genius!
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Thanks for the info on piping multiple flavors and colors of icing!
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Genius! Love the idea and will try it!!
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What a great idea. Have you tried this with more than 3 bags? I would love to do a rainbow swirl for my little girls birthday as we are having a rainbow theme – so would like to try 6 colours – your thoughts?
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Katie replied: — May 19th, 2011 @ 9:52 AM
I have not tried it with more than three bags, but I don’t see why it wouldn’t work. Just make sure you don’t put too much in each bag or you won’t be able to fit all the bags inside the final piping bag. Good luck!
such a brilliant idea!!! i just tried this with orange/vanilla swirl over a chocolate cupcake…deeeelicious! it’s so easy yet looks so impressive. thanks so much for the helpful tip!!
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Thanks so much for posting this! I made swirled frosting for my cupcakes today (chocolate and peanut butter). I wish I had read this first!!! It would have been a lot easier and neater. :0)
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I could kiss you!!! This is so simple and logical!
I haven’t used multi-coloured icing a lot because I find filling the bags half & half with 2 colours [or more] so difficult and not user friendly. I just stumbled on your site but will definitely be bookmarking it and using this technique next week!
Thanks!
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Wow these look so beautiful and delicious! Can’t wait to try this trick, thanks!
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This may be a silly question but does the outter bag need to be bigger than the others? X
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Katie replied: — January 7th, 2012 @ 4:05 PM
I did not use a larger bag for the outer bag, just made sure that the total amount between the 3 bags was what would normally fit all in one bag together.
I can not believe your idea about making this swirled icing. You are a very clever woman indeed. I found your blog via kevinandamanda.com. I love how one blog connects to another!!
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Thank you so, so, so,so much for the brilliant idea! It worked out perfect for the camoflage cupcakes I made for a birthday party, they look professional! Thanks again for sharing your brillance with us.
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I have always wondered how to do the swirled icing, I came across your technique yesterday and tried it out last night for my daughter’s b-day cupcakes…..AMAZING, they turned out so neat. I am going to do it again this weekend for her party!!!!
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Beautiful! I can’t even make frosting look good with one color!
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These look so beautiful! I tried doing two frostings at a time. The result was terrible: the other frosting came through but the other only a little. I realized I had stuffed the two inner bags maybe with too much frosting (wasn’t able to load them easily to the outer bag), so maybe this was my problem. However, does is make a difference if the other frosting is a bit more stiff than the other? Thanks for a great tip!
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Katie replied: — August 8th, 2012 @ 7:17 AM
I am guessing that if one frosting is stiffer than the other that the stiff one will come out of the bag slower and the soft one more quickly. You will have to squeeze the bag harder to get the stiff icing out which will cause more of the soft one to come out. It is best to use frostings of the same consistency so they will come out at the same pace. Overfilling could also be problematic. Do a couple test runs next time on wax paper or something else disposable. Good luck!
Absolutely creative
I want to try this soon
But I do have a problem… its that my frosting always fall a part a little bit.
its not as stiff as I wanted to be especially the whipping cream (not a big fan of butter cream frosting) which makes being creative especially with small piping tip very hard
any tips!!!
Appreciate that a lot
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Katie replied: — August 23rd, 2012 @ 12:52 PM
Usually when I find my frosting isn’t stiff enough, I add more powdered sugar. I usually use buttercream or cream cheese frosting, so I’m not sure about whipping cream and what you’d do there.
this is one of the most beautiful cupcake I’ve ever seen!
instantly became your fan! loved it! well done!
kisses julia
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Ohh!! This is really a great tip! Thanks for sharing!!
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Love this idea especially for Easter
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What piping nozzel did use??? I love the effect!
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Katie replied: — April 21st, 2013 @ 10:50 AM
I like Wilton 1M and the piping tips that BakeItPretty.com sells.
I have a question. Is the fourth bag the same size or is it bigger than the other 3? It seems hard for me to imagine that the 3 bags fit into the 12″ bag together. HELP Please and Thanks!!
Katie
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Katie replied: — April 21st, 2013 @ 10:49 AM
It is the same size. It works because you are using the amount of frosting that would normally fit just in the one bag, but dividing it into smaller amounts and placing those smaller amounts in the bags and then inside another bag. It is the same frosting amount, just divided. Wilton does sell different size bags so you can buy small ones for the inside and larger ones for the outside if you wish.
Can you share your frosting recipe? I’m having some trouble with mine. Maybe my quantities are off
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Katie replied: — June 7th, 2013 @ 10:04 AM
I have a few different frosting recipes if you go to the recipe index and then click cupcakes you will find them there.