The Piping Bag Hack For Beautiful 2-Toned Buttercream Swirls
Tasty and versatile, learning how to pipe with buttercream can turn plain cakes and cupcakes into works of art. The easiest way to make perfect two-toned buttercream swirls is to add two colors to two different piping bags and then place those two bags inside a larger one. While applying consistent pressure, the two colors added to the larger bag will appear two-toned when piping.
You can use a tip on the larger bag to make specific designs, or you can cut the end of the bag and pipe larger swirls using the two-toned icing. It is also possible to add more than two colors to a piping bag using the same method though starting with two colors will help build your skill level. Once this technique has been mastered, you can try other two-toned buttercream hacks and choose the one that works best for the desserts you want to create.
Other ways to get a two-toned buttercream effect
Adding different colors to individual bags is one of the easiest ways to achieve a swirled buttercream effect, but there are some other options too. You can spoon stripes of different colored frosting onto a piece of plastic parallel to each other, wrap, and then carefully roll the plastic to create a log, and drop the 'log' into a larger piping bag. This method should create swirled buttercream, but making sure the colors don't mix when using the plastic wrap method can be tricky. It's also possible to spoon two different colors directly into a large piping bag, making sure to keep each color parallel.
The swirls you create will be different depending on where you place the two colors. Adding one color inside of another color (instead of parallel), for example, will create a swirl in the middle of the buttercream. You can use both homemade or store-bought frosting to create a swirled effect.
When to use two-toned buttercream
Multi-colored buttercream swirls look amazing on cupcakes, but they can also be piped in a non-swirl form. Bring cakes to the next level using two-toned frosting and create border designs or a lace effect on a heart cake. Buttercream that has more than one color can also be used inside two baked cookies to create a buttercream cookie sandwich and to top off a pan of freshly baked brownies. You don't need to use food coloring to achieve a two-toned effect either — just use two different flavors of frosting (chocolate and strawberry, for example).
Two-toned buttercream works with almost any type of frosting, including Swiss meringue buttercream, American buttercream, and even royal icing. So, no matter what kind of frosting you prefer, adding two colors to one piping bag isn't complicated but produces epic results. If you mesh two colors together inside of a bag, you will make some swirls that are a mixture of the two colors and some that are separate. Try to imagine how you want your two-toned buttercream to work before adding frosting to a piping bag, and then try a few practice swirls on a piece of parchment paper or cardboard.