Six Ways To Pipe Buttercream Wreath Cupcakes

We’re back again with another addition to my “25 Bakes of Christmas” series here for the holidays. This time, I can’t wait to share with you my Six Ways to Pipe Buttercream Wreath Cupcakes! With six different options to choose from, I know you’re sure to love one (or all of them) for your upcoming holiday festivities!

What cupcakes do I use

My vanilla cupcakes are what I used here for my base – you can use any cupcake recipe you’d like. A spice cake or peppermint cake would be really fun – or even a chocolate cupcake base! Yum! Just make sure you keep the buttercream a lighter color. That way you can tint the buttercream a shade of green as contrast on top.

I baked up the cupcakes in some cute green cupcake liners, let them cool, and then made a batch of my vanilla buttercream to go on top.

Buttercream – green and white

For my vanilla buttercream, you’re going to want to tint 1/3 of the batch a light soft green color. I used a mixture of Moss and Leaf Green. A little goes a long way for the green, and the color will intensify over time, so a couple drops should do.

What Piping tips do I need?

For the white buttercream, I used a large wide open circle tip from Ateco.

1. Tip 808 by Ateco.

For the green buttercream, I used a couple different ones. We’ll go over them in more detail with the photos below, but here’s a list of what I used:

1. Tip #67 (leaf tip)
2. Tip #21 (small star tip)
3. Tip #1 (small circle tip)

How to make A flat buttercream cupcake top?

The flat buttercream top makes for a flat blank canvas for our Christmas wreaths! For the flat top on the white buttercream, there’s a couple easy steps to follow:

1. Pipe a large dollop of buttercream on the cupcake with the Ateco 808 Large Open Circle.
2. Turn the cupcake upside down onto a square of parchment paper and gently press down.
3. Freeze for 10 minutes, then peel off the parchment paper square.
4. To make the surface even more flat, run a cake scraper or angled icing spatula under hot water for a couple seconds to warm the tool, then gently glide over the surface of the flat frosting to make it even more smooth.

Where do I find the Red berry sprinkles?

I love the contrast of the red berry sprinkles with the greenery on the wreaths. I ended up using the red sprinkles from this sprinkle mix, but you can use any red sphere sprinkles you can find! Mini M&Ms would even work.

Which brings us to:

How to pipe Christmas wreath cupcakes – six ways:

Star Braid Wreath

1. What you’ll need: Small star tip, red sphere sprinkles.
2. How: Start by piping a small shell shape from the outside rim, pulling the tail inside and releasing. Repeat by doing the same shell shape, but the opposite direction and crossing the tail over the last one. Repeat around the entire cupcake in tight crisscross patterns. Place on a few red sprinkles.

Minimalistic Wreath

1. What you’ll need: Small circle piping tip.
2. How: Start by piping a line from the outside rim, pulling the tail inside and releasing, leaving a bit more space than the braid pattern between the lines. Repeat by doing the same line shape, but the opposite direction and crossing the tail over the last one. Repeat around the entire cupcake.

Holly Leaves and Berries Wreath

1. What you’ll need: Small leaf piping tip and berry sprinkles.
2. How: Start by piping a small leaf on opposite sides of the cupcake. Turn the cupcake and pipe a few more leaves going in different directions. Repeat until the leaves form a wreath pattern around the outside rim of the cupcake. Hand place on some berry sprinkles in groups of three.

Simple braid wreath

1. What you’ll need: Small circle piping tip.
2. How: Start by piping a short line from the outside rim to the inside, pulling the tail inside and releasing. Repeat by doing the same line shape in a tight proximity, but the opposite direction and crossing the tail over the last one. Repeat around the entire cupcake – crisscrossing over the last line to make a tight simple braid design.

Rosette Wreath

1. What you’ll need: Small star piping tip & red berry sprinkles.
2. How: Pipe small rosettes in opposite ends of the outside rim of the cupcake. Repeat by adding on more rosettes here and there around the sides. Add on a few berry sprinkles.

Star Wreath

1. What you’ll need: Small star piping tip & red berry sprinkles.
2. How: Squeeze small star patterns in a random order around the outside rim of the cupcake. Place on a few red sphere berry sprinkles.

That’s it! I hope this was helpful to have everything typed out for a little tutorial on how to pipe these darling Christmas wreaths in 6 different ways! If you’re more of a video tutorial person, I have a helpful video that I know you’ll love to see!

Here’s a quick video of the process:

I can’t wait for you to try these fun wreath decorated cupcakes! If you do, I’d love to see it – make sure to tag me @bakingwithblondie on Instagram, Youtube, TikTok, or Facebook so I can join in on all the fun!

As always, happy baking!

Xo,

Mandy