Hi, I'm new to cup cakes and want to frost them with a smooth swirl, not a star tip. The largest one I can fid is a wilton tip 12. Anyone have any suggestions???? Thanks

Most people use a small coupler with no tip. The solid coupler without the notch. There is also a large circle tip...Wilton is 1A or 2A.

I have the Wilton tips and have tried to use them to frost cupcakes, but I can't create the nice mound or twirled rope look. Any suggestions would be appreciated.

I second Wilton 1A & 2A
Try building a base before starting with your swirl... I found that without the base it will sink in the middle (if you know what a mean)
Just squeeze a triangle-like structure in the middle then work your way around it
HTH

You can practice on a piece of wax paper and keep re-using it. Vary your consistency of the icing. You also need to vary the speed in some cases. Through practice, you will see all of the options that come from the round shape. For example, to get the effect of GT Cupcake, your icing needs to be soft, but hold its shape.

You can order a very large round tip on the Bake It Pretty website. I just bought one but haven't used it yet. The example they give on the website looks very professional.

I searched and searched for a large rounded tip and order mine from here:

http://www.etsy.com/listing/62673567/extra-large-round-pastry-tip-for-cupcake

This one is perfect. You could use just the coupler, but I like having this specific tip. I just ordered another one from her.

I don't remember what tip I used on these:

http://cakecentral.com/gallery/2103071

but to make it stack up, I just piped a pile in the middle of my cupcake and then swirled around it. I used indydebi's recipe so that the coils would hold their shape and not melt away.

Thank you very much for all of the suggestions; hopefully, I can learn to use the tips.

I just cut about 2" - 2" 1/2 inches off of the icing bag... no tip