A few weeks ago I was in JoAnn’s and found these really cute red poinsettia garland. It got me thinking about making poinsettia cupcakes. By the way, do you pronounce it poinsetta or poinsettia?  I’ve always pronounced it poinsettia.  Of course, there is no right or wrong way I believe both are correct.  These buttercream poinsettia cupcakes are surprisingly super easy to make all you need is just a few items.

Sometimes as fate would have it when I plan to create anything in cake or cupcake, I tend to see it everywhere.  For the first time in a long time, I remembered one line from a poem that I learned in school moons ago “…poinsettia’s red, blood-red in warm December.”  So long ago that I had to Google the author (you can find the rest of the poem here if you’re interested) and of course it is stuck in my head.   Now it is going to be stuck in your head too (sorry).

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So how do you make poinsettia cupcakes?

Easy… All you need is a leaf tip (or two) and two piping bags.  You will also need a green and red buttercream.  Now I know I said this cupcake was easy to make and it is, however, red buttercream not so much (there is a chapter in the buttercream e-book that talks about coloring buttercream including red buttercream).  If you don’t want the hassle of making red buttercream, you can always purchase the Wilton red buttercream icing.

Materials:

• Wilton Leaf Tip 352 (small tip), Wilton tip 366 (a large tip-I prefer this one) or Wilton tip 67
• coupler (optional, plus only works with smaller tips)
• Piping bags (I usually get the 100 pack from Ateco), if you are new to cake decorating get the smaller size piping bags.
• Green buttercream (to get a dark green buttercream mix moss green and juniper green with a touch of black gel color)
• Red buttercream (use any one of these recipes or easy buttercream recipe)
• Cupcake (I used a chocolate recipe, feel free to use vanilla)

Step-by-Step Guide

1. Fill the piping bags with the leaf tips and add the buttercream. I used the large tip 366 for the green and the smaller tip 352 for the red buttercream.
2. Pipe a green border around the cupcake. Hold the piping bag at a 45-degree angle, with the tip like a bird’s beak.  Then begin piping, release pressure before pulling the bag away.
3. Pipe leaves all around (optional).  You can also pipe them in four corners, I liked the look of them this way.
4. Add your red leaf in between the green. Wiggle your hand as you apply pressure for a nice shaped leaf. Pipe each leaf next to each other.
5. Create/pipe an entire row of the red leaf.
6. Add the second row of leaf in between the first one.
7. Then add the third row. 
8. Then add yellow sprinkles to the center or pipe yellow buttercream dots.

There you have it easy poinsettia cupcakes.  If you like this tutorial don’t forget to share the love and pin for later.