Hello
i have been asked to make cupcakes for my brothers wedding next year, although a while off i would like to start practising, as i love baking although i've never done anything like this before

he wants this kind of cake (hopefully the attactment works!)

can anyone help with what i would need to do the tops, i can make victoria sponge so i will do that,

thank you

Hi welcome to CC!
The tips used to make the pretty swirls are 1m and 2d.
Good Luck!

thank you, is it just regular icing sugar and butter to make the icing?

I use a half butter half shorteining recipe and i use coffee creamer as my liquid instead of milk. All butter is fine.
Shortening helps it hold up in heat or humidity.
There are tons of buttercream recipes and techniques for each on this sight.
Indydebi's buttercream is pretty popular around here, Sugarshacks is another really good one!
I suggest searching the recipes and try a few to find one (try a couple out on brother and sil) you all like.
Good luck! HTH!
I'm sure you'll get alot of other replies and suggestions!

thank you, i will search, what is shortening by the way?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shortening

Hope this helps!!

I also use the butter/shortening combo. Butter alone is too soft and doesn't hold up as well. And all shortening with butter extract tastes phoney to me.

is shortening sold in the uk, or has it another name? never seen it on the shelfs but going to a cake shop tomo so they should know!

I *think* in the UK vegetable shortening is called vegetable fat. Cannot recall the most popular brand name over there right now.

I, personally, do not like the butter/shortening + icing sugar frosting. I make Italian Meringue Buttercream, which isn't so super sweet, has a more pronounced butter flavor, and is silky smooth. It pipes like a dream on cupcakes and would compliment sponge cake MUCH better than the other frosting. You can find lots of recipes for this type of icing in the recipes section of the website.