Can anyone tell me how to make the frosting look like the top of this cupcake?  Also I am thinking that the picture is a bit distorted and the cupcake is not as big as it looks.  I am using this picture as a sample to recreate the cake.

one way is to pipe it on with just an open coupler or a large tube

pipe the lowest ring of icing all the way around

if necessary pat down the scallops a bit then pipe the next row and so on

use light then heavy then light pressure to form the scallops

could also be done by piping a ring of icing and using the spatula to push out each scallop then pipe the next etc

AThanks for your input