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Home » Recipes » Dessert » Cakes and Cupcakes » Kitchen Tip: Two Tone Frosting for Cupcakes
March 15, 2011

Kitchen Tip: Two Tone Frosting for Cupcakes

From the Kitchen of Katie Kick

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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.

dual color cupcake 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.

dual frosting for cupcakes

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!


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Meet Katie Kick

My lifelong interest in cooking has shown me that part of the goodness in life is enjoying delicious food with friends and family. I love trying new foods, discovering new places & things that help my family live the good life.

More About Katie
Updated: January 27, 2025

Reader Interactions

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  1. Cynthia says

    May 21, 2013 at 8:45 AM

    Can you share your frosting recipe? I’m having some trouble with mine. Maybe my quantities are off

    Reply
    • Katie says

      June 7, 2013 at 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.

      Reply
  2. Katie Walker says

    April 20, 2013 at 5:05 PM

    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

    Reply
    • Katie says

      April 21, 2013 at 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.

      Reply
  3. Patricia says

    April 18, 2013 at 7:25 PM

    What piping nozzel did use??? I love the effect!

    Reply
    • Katie says

      April 21, 2013 at 10:50 AM

      I like Wilton 1M and the piping tips that BakeItPretty.com sells.

      Reply
  4. millieoja says

    March 16, 2013 at 8:43 PM

    Love this idea especially for Easter

    Reply
  5. Chai Ling says

    December 12, 2012 at 9:24 PM

    Ohh!! This is really a great tip! Thanks for sharing!!

    Reply
  6. Júlia Mano says

    November 23, 2012 at 3:16 AM

    this is one of the most beautiful cupcake I’ve ever seen!
    instantly became your fan! loved it! well done!

    kisses julia

    Reply
  7. Aya B. says

    August 23, 2012 at 9:05 AM

    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

    Reply
    • Katie says

      August 23, 2012 at 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.

      Reply
  8. Salla says

    August 8, 2012 at 4:02 AM

    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!

    Reply
    • Katie says

      August 8, 2012 at 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!

      Reply
  9. Heidi says

    July 6, 2012 at 12:57 PM

    Beautiful! I can’t even make frosting look good with one color!

    Reply
  10. Torrie Denton says

    March 15, 2012 at 6:09 AM

    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!!!!

    Reply
  11. Crystal says

    March 4, 2012 at 12:21 PM

    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.

    Reply
  12. Debra says

    February 14, 2012 at 3:45 PM

    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!!

    Reply
  13. leighanne says

    January 7, 2012 at 11:47 AM

    This may be a silly question but does the outter bag need to be bigger than the others? X

    Reply
    • Katie says

      January 7, 2012 at 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.

      Reply
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Katie Kick from Good Life Eats in her kitchen

Meet Katie Kick

Hi, I’m Katie! Thank you so much for visiting my corner of the internet. I am passionate about cooking delicious and beautiful, yet accessible, food for my family and friends. I love tasting new foods, discovering new places and things that help my family live that good life.

More about Katie
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