Up in the Air Cupcakes

Take a little vacation (if only in your mind) with these Up in the Air Cupcakes. Decorated with fluffy clouds, hot air balloons and airplanes, these cute travel-themed cupcakes are great for themed birthdays or bon voyage parties. Best of all, piping these decorations is easy if you have a set of round tips on hand. A fun treat for boys and girls alike, these Up in the Air Cupcakes are sure to have you dreaming of far-off adventures!

Prep1 hr 25 min
Total Time3 hr 25 min
Skill LevelIntermediate

Ingredients & Tools
Instructions

Instructions

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Bake cupcakes. Prepare cake batter following recipe instructions. Bake and cool cupcakes in white cupcake liners.
Tint icing. Using Royal Blue icing color, tint 1½ cups icing light blue. Using Royal Blue, Brown and Red icing colors, tint ½ cup icing each medium blue, brown and red.
Reserve remaining icing white.
Decorate cupcakes. Using light blue icing, spatula ice all the cupcakes.
Prepare four decorating bags with couplers. Fill separately with medium blue, brown, red, and white buttercream.
Cloud Cupcakes: Attach tip 10 to white bag; pipe fluffy swirls on cupcake to create cloud.
Airplane Cupcakes: Attach tip 10 to white bag; pipe a long bead for the body of the plane. Switch to tip 6; pipe wings and tail. Attach tip 1 to red bag; pipe line details. Attach tip 1 to medium blue bag; pipe window details. Switch white bag to tip 2; pipe small clouds around the airplane.
Hot Air Balloon Cupcakes: Using spatula, spread small amount of white icing into light blue icing to create clouds. Attach tip 1 to brown bag; pipe outline of basket. Fill in the basket with tight vertical lines, then pipe horizontal lines over the vertical ones, leaving space in between to look like a basketweave. Use a toothpick to outline the shape of the balloon. Attach tip 5 to both the medium blue and red bags. Beginning with red, pipe the outer lines, then the blue. Finish by piping a red line in the middle. Using brown bag with tip 1, add small cords to attach the balloon to the basket.