It’s pi day! What a perfect time to make adorable little pie-looking cupcakes to take to all of your math nerd friends. My son Asher just so happens to be born on pi day (3.14 aka March 14th) and is a little bit of a math smarty pants himself so I made these cuppies to take into his class today. Here is my take on making these super cute sweets.

Here is a quick run down on loading a piping bag. If you haven’t seen this method before, it may change your life!

Start by laying out a large piece of plastic wrap flat on your counter (about 12 x 18 inches or 30 x 45 cm).

Next, add a blob of frosting crosswise in length across the middle.  Here I used buttercream tinted with brown and yellow for the “crust” Note: Don’t add more than enough buttercream to half fill your piping bag for these cupcakes. You will need to be able to pipe with one hand and it is very difficult with a full piping bag.

Twist one end of the plastic wrap up to close it off.

Drop the open end of the wrapped frosting into your piping bag fitted with your tip of choice (for these cupcakes I used Wilton tip #47-a small basket weave tip). Give the piping bag a couple of firm shakes from the open end to force the frosting bag toward the tip. Then twist the open end of the bag off and squeeze until the frosting reaches the tip. When your bag is empty, remove the plastic wrap and drop another plastic-wrapped frosting bundle in.

This is hands down the easiest, cleanest method I have ever used to load a piping bag!

Next, prepare frosting in the color of your chosen pie fillings. I used blue for blueberry pie and deep red for cherry pie.

Then color or prepare modeling chocolate or fondant that coordinates with your frosting colors.

Roll the modeling chocolate out and cut circles for the berries and cherries. My cherries were 7/8 inch in diameter (about 2.5 cm) and the blueberries were about 1/2 inch in diameter (about 1.5 cm) cut with an Ateco #807 tip.

Frost cupcakes with a thin layer of desired color “pie filling” frosting.

Top with an even layer of “berries” or “cherries” overlapping slightly. I used about 7 cherries or 9 blueberries.

Using your piping bag, pipe four stripes one direction with about 1/4 inch (0.7 cm) between each stripe.

Turn the cupcake 90 degrees and pipe four more stripes in the other direction. If you want your final cupcake to have a foil wrapper and you did not bake it in one, now is the time to drop your cupcake in the foil. It will be difficult to add once the outer crust is on.

I found it the easiest to add the outer crust while the cupcake was sitting on a turntable. Using the basket weave tip at a 45 degree angle slightly move the tip in and out while rotating the turntable slowly to wrap around the entire cupcake.

And that is it! Cupcake pies for pi day or Independence Day or a BBQ or just because they are so stinkin’ cute! Enjoy!