Icing cupcakes doesn't need to be a mess - it can be this easy

If the thought of icing cupcakes sends you into a panic of hot and cold sweats, you're not alone. 

Plenty of people believe that icing cupcakes is a messy, time-consuming test of palette knife skills and overflowing piping bags. Well, we're here at 9Kitchen to tell you that icing a cupcake can be easy, quick and decadent, with limited clean-up and still turn out a brillient end result. 

That's right, you can put the piping bags away and step away from the shaping tools. Because this is one hack that is so easy that the kids can do it... and not leave the kitchen looking like a sticky bomb site.

What you'll need:

• cupcakes (find our favourite recipes here)
• one quantity of Swiss meringue buttercream
• an ice cream scoop
• whatever sprinkles you want on top.

Method:

Watch the video above for the easy technique, but essentially you just place a scoop of Swiss meringue buttercream on top of your cupcake and then tap the cupcake up and down to help the buttercream settle into a gorgeous, high dome of icing glory, and then cover it with the sprinkles of your choice.

See? No scraping, shaping, piping in sight. Just a fluffy dome-topped finish that's sure to impress. 

Find our naked cake icing hack video below and all our favourite kitchen technique videos here.

See how to use your Swiss buttercream to make cupcakes topped like Christmas trees below: