Want to turn an ordinary cake into something a bit more fancy? You must learn to use a piping bag and cake decorating tips! It’s scary and weird the first few times, but you’ll get more comfortable with practice and soon you’ll be able to make any cake look a bit more finished.
Wilton is the company that makes and sells most cake decorating supplies, and they supplied this introductory video. To do some decorating, you’ll need something to hold the frosting (a bag), a variety of tips, a coupler to attach your tips to your bag, and then some practice.
Basic tips are the star tip to make flowery shapes, and some round tips to make lines. There are hundreds of tips available for all sorts of custom piping – some make leaf shapes, others make ribbons. One of my favorites makes two thin, parallel lines.
One way to practice it to mix up some fake buttercream – about a cup of shortening with a pound of confectioner’s sugar should do – and keep it stored in an airtight container. You can practice, then scrape it up and try again, and the consistency is similar to real buttercream frosting.
Male sure to wash up and keep your tools clean when you are done. They’ll last forever with good care.
Caking
I really use to enjoy baking and decorated cakes were one of my favorites. Now I just shamefully get them at Walmart’s.
Mr R.
The first time I saw a cake decorated was on Mister Rogers. He took us to a bakery and a baker had cakes on lazy susan, spinning them and adding frosting with spatulas and piping bags. Really kind of magical.
Things like this give me pause to think about the first person to try these things. Someone thought that putting buttercream in a bag and extruding it through different shaped holes makes good designs.