My friends and family like chocolate cupcakes filled and iced with cream cheese buttercream icing. I usually have two flowers on top, or a bigger flower; but these are a big hit:

I use a large cookie scoop (ice cream scoop) to get uniform cupcakes. The same amount goes in each time. I always use this for my cupcakes and muffins.

I also don't over fill - I like them to not crest over the top too much. You may have to experiment to see what is the right fullness. Box mixes rise higher. Scratch baked ones seem to not be as fluffy.

I like to use a large tip to pipe on my frosting. Don't go crazy with sprinkles! Some folks over load with them. Use them sparingly, and skip about half of the cupcakes. Wilton also has a "glitter" that is kind of a sparkly flake. This is also very pretty when used sparingly for the right occasion.

I have linked to the site where this picture is from. Great hints there!

I also like her use of the brown wrapper. Those are my favorite for most cupcakes. I also like plain white ones for white cake. There are some really neat ones out there now.

Here is a link that might be useful: Glorious Treats - how to frost a cupcake

If you have the plain icing tip used on the blue icing at the left, NEVER use it for chocolate icing. Looks WAY too...organic...if you get my drift ;-)

Good point colleen! I won't poo-poo you on that one! LOL!

One thing that doesn't show very good in the cupcake decorating video is to twist the top of the pastry bag before you start piping. You can see she does it, but barely.

If you don't give the top of the bag a good twist - you will squirt the frosting out the top - and what a mess!

I use disposable bags - make sure you get a larger size if you get them, so you don't have to refill a lot. They are really handy - and re-usable. I wash and use mine several times.

Although the piping looks super easy in the video - and it isn't hard - you might want to practice a few times onto a piece of parchment or waxed paper until you get the hang of it, if you have never used a piping bag. That way you can just scrape your mistakes back into the bowl!

Thanks for the pretty pictures. I have the sparkly sugar to put a bit on top and I got a can of pink food color spray from Amber to try out. I will try to do a sampling of them this week. I have and plan to use Wilton's dessert decorator and use tip 1M. It is Amber's and was given to her for a shower gift. We will see if I can do any thing with it. They have so many pretty cupcake wrappers out now. For my trial run I will just use the white ones I have. Yes, I had planned to use my ice cream scoop to put my batter into the cupcake pans. Thanks all for responding and if anyone else has some ideas will be looking forward to hearing about them.

Sue