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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. Angela Norlen says

    November 26, 2011 at 10:28 PM

    Wow these look so beautiful and delicious! Can’t wait to try this trick, thanks!

    Reply
  2. michele says

    August 7, 2011 at 3:41 PM

    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!

    Reply
  3. Robin says

    August 3, 2011 at 5:12 PM

    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)

    Reply
  4. Davana says

    June 4, 2011 at 3:36 PM

    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!!

    Reply
  5. Leanne Murdoch says

    May 18, 2011 at 10:22 PM

    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?

    Reply
    • Katie says

      May 19, 2011 at 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!

      Reply
  6. Pat says

    May 10, 2011 at 5:36 PM

    Genius! Love the idea and will try it!!

    Reply
  7. Christina says

    April 25, 2011 at 3:42 PM

    Thanks for the info on piping multiple flavors and colors of icing!

    Reply
  8. Cindy says

    April 4, 2011 at 8:21 AM

    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!

    Reply
  9. Aliesha says

    March 29, 2011 at 10:55 AM

    This is so cool! Thanks for sharing. (Visiting from UCreateFoods)

    Reply
  10. Connie @ its the cookie monster! says

    March 24, 2011 at 11:23 PM

    this is genius! thanks for sharing the great tip! ill definitely be two-toning or even quadruple-toning my cupcakes now!

    Reply
  11. marla {family fresh cooking} says

    March 20, 2011 at 8:45 PM

    Katie, this is genius & so fun! Gotta try this technique 🙂

    Reply
  12. Kati says

    March 18, 2011 at 5:33 PM

    Such a simple idea but I never would have thought of it! 🙂

    Reply
  13. Emma says

    March 18, 2011 at 3:19 PM

    I can’t add anything new but I have to agree with the other commentors – so simple, so clever and I never knew! Thankyou!

    Reply
  14. Lyuba says

    March 18, 2011 at 10:38 AM

    You make it look so easy…and so amazing!!!

    Reply
  15. Nancy Coffin says

    March 17, 2011 at 10:25 AM

    Smart! I will definitely have to try this out. It looks very pretty!

    Reply
  16. outoftheoven says

    March 17, 2011 at 7:02 AM

    Pure genius!!

    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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