Hi guys,

I'm new here at cakecentral and this is my first post! I am planning a rainbow birthday party for my daughter's 7th birthday and i saw this cupcakes on pinterest. I was wondering if you guys have an idea  how they made the frosting look like that. 

Hope you guys can help me.

Thanks!

You should make one big batch of buttercream, split it into five bowls, then individually add color to each bowl. You will then need 5 different pastry bags to pipe the five colors, or clean a reusable bag in between each color. 

You can even use jell-o to color your frosting, and add fun flavors for the kids. 

If you want an ombre look, use the canned color spray they sell at Michael's and grocery stores. It'll give an airbrushed effect. 

ADo you mean the colors or the piping style?

AUsing something like Americolor food colorizing instead of Wilton will help you get brighter colors. Also, keep in mind some colors will give the buttercream an off taste if you use too much food color. I find this especially true with red and blue. Even using the no taste red, I still find it can change the flavor. Also, color the buttercream the day before you need it to help the color mature. It gets darker with time, so you may not need as much as you initially think. You can always add more if necessary.

Americolor sells neon colors, I would look into those. Other than that, that brightness often comes from an airbrush machine, like the cupcakes you see at the grocery store. They are often sprayed with color for more vibrancy. 

Thanks for your suggestions guys! I was thinking that maybe i will try coloring the buttercream but not too bright and use some wilton pearl white mist for the ombre effect what do you guys think?

Frosting tends to dry a shade or so darker, just remember that when you are trying to achieve the color you want.  The Americolor Electric line of colors are very bright and pretty.

Actually it is not the brightness that i don't know how to do. i don't know if you guys can see it in the picture there seems to be a highlight or an ombre of white on the frosting that make it seem ribbon like. do you guys know how to do that?

I don't think they have sprayed white mist on a color, but I have never seen that done before. I do think it looks just like what they do at my local grocery store, they pipe white on the cupcakes then spray them with color. Thats why you are seeing the white in the inner edges, and the outer edges are more vibrant. 

I feel a bit like a detective!  I think it's the lighting, not a true variance in the frosting coloring.  If you look at where the shadows fall on the plate you can sort of line up that the frosting is lighter where the light hits it directly, and darker where it's a bit more in the shadow.  I don't have a ton of experience with spray color on buttercream, but it looks too uniform to me to be spray.  

i think you might just be right. Thanks for all your help guys! I decided just to color the frosting and leave out the spray. Thanks!

AI'd say the photo has been edited, using something like instagram.

I think its the lighting too!  One of the other things you can do when you tint/color your buttercream is not to over mix it - that way there are shades of the same color still in the same bowl. That way, when you put it into your piping bag you will get some lighter and darker areas.  The best part of that type of decorating - if it doesn't look good on one cupcake, scrape off, mix it up and do it all over again.

The color variations in my avatar pic have multiple color buttercream in the same piping bag.  Good luck.

Theresa

Thank YOU for the compliment! 

Theresa