Cupcakes that are spot-on

1. To create a pink leopard design, ice the cupcake in light pink using tip No. 12, then smooth the icing flat. Use tip No. 5 to pipe circles in a darker pink icing. With tip No. 3 and another shade of pink icing, outline portions of the circles and pipe dots.

2. Place a polyester towel (cotton will stick to the icing) over the cupcake, and flatten the icing slightly with the palm of your hand.

3. When piping the lines or dots, always pipe them thinner using a smaller tip as they will spread when you flatten the icing.

4. For a blue tiger pattern, ice the cupcake in light blue icing with tip No. 12 and smooth. Pipe a strip of darker blue icing or gel along one side of the cupcake, and use a knife to smear it into a crescent along the edge of the cupcake. Use tip No. 3 to pipe stripes of dark blue icing. Then, pat flat using the polyester towel.

5. Or use purple for a different take on the tiger pattern. Ice the cupcake in a light purple icing using tip No. 12 and smooth. Then, add stripes of darker purple using tip No. 3, and pat flat with the polyester towel.

6. For a colorful giraffe, ice the cupcake with yellow icing and smooth. Use tip No. 45 to pipe orange squares randomly across the top of the cupcake. Flatten using the polyester towel.

7. Finish the neon animal print designs by using a paintbrush to tap a bit of glitter on top of the cupcakes.

8. For more realistic animal print design, create earthy icing colors by adding a touch of brown to the icing. To make a tiger stripe pattern, ice the cupcake with yellow icing using tip No. 12 and smooth. Then, combine orange and brown airbrush coloring to airbrush a crescent along one side of the cupcake.

9. With tip No. 3, pipe black strips across the top of the cupcake. Make some small and others longer, and have a couple join at the top and bottom. Flatten with the polyester towel.

10. For a leopard, ice the cupcake with yellow icing and smooth. Use the brown/orange airbrush color to airbrush the circumference of the cupcake.

11. Use tip No. 5 to pipe dark tan circles on top of the cupcake. With tip No. 3, outline portions of the circles with black icing and pipe dots on top of the cupcake. Flatten with the polyester towel.

12. Black and white patterns, such as a zebra and snow leopard, make striking designs. Ice the cupcakes with white icing and smooth. For a zebra, use tip No. 3 to pipe black stripes, and for a snow leopard, pipe rings and dots. Flatten with the polyester towel.

13. For a realistic giraffe, ice the cupcake with yellow icing. Then, highlight the edge by airbrushing it a darker tan color using a combination of yellow and brown airbrush colors.

14. Use tip No. 45 to pipe tan squares on top of the cupcake. Flatten using the polyester towel.

Bob Brougham has more than 30 years of cake decorating experience, and he opened his own bakery, The Cakery in North Aurora, Ill., 18 years ago. He is a mostly self-taught decorator who made the switch to bakery after attending culinary school and working as a chef. He began competing in local competitions, and he participated in a cake decorating challenge on the TLC series Ultimate Cake Off.