Two-tone Icing Tutorial

Two-tone icing is something I've wanted to attempt for a while, but fear of a messy coloured cupcake stopped me.  To combat mess, I've come up with an idea outlined below! I've taken some step-by-step pictures to make it easier to understand.  The extra few steps (instead of just shoving pink and white icing freely in a piping bag) is totally worth the time.  It creates such a pretty style of icing; which really reminds me of a rose for some reason!


Ingredients for Buttercream
250g unsalted butter, softened
3 cups icing sugar, sifted
3 tsp water
+ 1 drop of desired food dye
+ 12 un-iced cupcakes


Method for Buttercream
In one bowl, place 125g of the butter.  Beat in electric mixer until butter is smooth and creamy.  Add 1 cup of the icing sugar, and beat until smooth.  Add 1 1/2 tsp of water and beat again.  Now add 1/2 cup icing sugar and beat until smooth and spreadable.  Set this plain bowl of buttercream aside.
In a separate bowl, place 125g of butter and beat in electric mixer until smooth and creamy.  Add 1 cup of icing sugar, and beat until smooth.  Add 1 1/2 tsp of water and beat again.  Now add 1/2 cup icing sugar and beat until smooth.  Add 1-2 drops of desired food dye.  Beat until combined.  Set this bowl of pink buttercream aside.

Method for Two-Tone Icing
Lay out a 30cm x 20cm rectangle piece of cling film on a bench.  Scoop all of plain buttercream onto this cling film; spreading into a sausage shape.  Roll up into a sausage shape; ensuring one end is completely closed and the opposite end is open for the icing to be squeezed out later.  Repeat this process for the pink buttercream.  You should now have 2 cling film sausage shapes filled with plain buttercream, and the other with pink buttercream (refer to picture 1 below)

Picture 1: Separate icing sausages

Now slide those two cling film icing sausages (pictured above) into 1 large piping bag.  Ensure they are placed evenly in the bag as in Picture 2 (eg. both icing sausage openings are evenly near the piping bag's nozzle).  If you adjust the height of one of the icing sausages (eg. pink buttercream higher than white buttercream) you will create a different colour ratio (eg. 80% white and 20% pink).  If they are evenly placed, you will have an even two-tone effect (eg. roughly 50% white and roughly 50% pink). 

Picture 2: Both icing sausages evenly placed in 1 large piping bag

Now squeeze icing out of piping bag in a circle motion and onto a plain cupcake.  You should now have a two-tone icing ontop of your cupcake.  Adjust the height of one of the icing sausages to experiment with different colour ratios.

Even colour ratio due to evenly placed icing sausages

Uneven colour ratio due to unevenly placed icing sausages