Attached are the Mickey cupcakes I am making. Before doing any design on the cupcake, I was wondering how to get the blue and yellow base icing smooth? It almost looks like this decorator used a tip. I tried using a spatula but mine don't look as nice. Any advice for icing a cupcake smooth before putting the Mickey heads on?

Thanks!!!

it looks like either a fondant or rolled buttercream. there are plenty of recipes for both under the recipes tab. I personally like the taste of RBC better, so that's what I'd rather use as the base on a cupcake, though not on a regular cake because it tears so easily. But I like that it stays soft. HTH Cute cuppies, BTW.

ETA: Upon closer inspection, I do see where it looks like they used a tip, but I'd almost still say RBC, though can you put alittle regular buttercream under that so you have a bit more icing? That's my only complaint about fondant/RBC is with a cupcake, you just expect a higher cake to icing ratio...

If you look closely at some of them you can see there's a swirl pattern and it was more than likely done in a large round tip or just using a coupler as the tip. With a good crusting b/c you can do a single layer round swirl, then take a Viva papertowel and lay it over the icing after it dries for a few minutes and use your hand to smooth it. That'll give you a flat surface for your decorations. Just don't make the swirl too thick or it'll be harder to smooth/flatten.

It appears to me that it's piped buttecream also...you can see the lines from where they piped it. If you keep your tip at a 90 degree angle to the cupcake and swirl it on it will be pretty flat....I do it all the time. If you want it flatter, I would let it crust over and use a VIVA to flatten them down! Good luck!

Thanks everyone. I went with the Viva technique and it worked out OK.