Swirled Icing Two Ways

Have you ever wondered how to make your own swirled two-tone icing? You can buy it in the stores in cans ready to go, but where's the fun in that? I tried this a few times before figuring it out. I tried putting two colors in one bag, but it didn't go well... I'll show you what I ended up coming up with and if you have any suggestions, I'd love to hear them! Everything I do with my cakes it's 100% self taught!

You'll need frosting in one color, I used white and then gel food color in another color, I used purple. I've done this with other colors before. Like light blue frosting and dark blue gel color. It's great. You have to use gel color! You'll also need a clean food safe paint brush, piping bags and a nice star tip. I prefer the parchment triangle bags.

Paint three nice thick stripes on the inside of your bag.  Then start adding your frosting. Don't worry if it gets a LITTLE messy in there, but you want to try to drop the icing right down the center. There's some room for error here. So don't worry. When your bag is 3/4 full, twist up the end and you're ready to pipe!

Start piping from the outter edge of the cupcake and spiral your way in applying constant and consistent pressure. When you get to the center, let up on the pressure and pull up to make a nice crest.

The first cupcake you do might not have a best swirl, but the rest should come out great.

The second way has better results, you won't be assaulting your guests' mouths with stripes of pure food coloring. It's a little harder to manage though. I've burst a few pastry bags from the pressure you need to apply to get the icing out correctly.

This time you'll need two colors of frosting, your star tip and three piping bags!

Fill a piping bag with each color and then fit the 3rd with the icing tip, insert the two filled bags into the bag with the tip. Try to get the tips of both bags as centered at the point as possible. Then attempt to twist the end of this monster bag!

Pipe again, using the same technique. Again, the first cupcake might not be super swirly, but it should even out after that. These colors should blend great and you could use any two colors you want with out any issues!

So there you have it, swirled icing two ways! The triple bag is a superior swirl (in my opinion), but the gel process is easy enough for anyone to do without issues. Like I said, if you know another way, please share! I love to learn new techniques!