Chocolate Cupcakes with Buttercream Swirls

Here are some more cupcakes I made for the birthdays of two aquatints. I made twenty chocolate cupcakes with vanilla icing, and a friend of mine made twenty vanilla cupcakes wit chocolate icing. We shared the forty cupcakes in celebration of the birthdays. These are the cupcakes I made. I simple whipped up some chocolate cake batter and made my signature vanilla buttercream. Then I used an open star tip to pipe overlapping, circular swirls around the cupcakes, piling the icing on higher towards the center, and finishing off with a peak. As you can see, twenty cupcakes fit perfectly in my container. Had I needed to make one more, I would have had to use another container! Surprisingly the container held the cupcakes just right - the icing did not become squished on any sides, and the cover was just high enough so that the peaks of the cupcakes did not squish. The black and white patterned wrappers go perfectly with the black bottoms and white tops of these cupcakes, and the white bottoms and black tops of the other cupcakes. Simple and classy was the aim here, no sprinkles, bright colors, or other adornments. Just sweet and simple.