Piping Frosting 101

Tutorial

piping is the term used to explain the use of an decorators icing tip

This is a short tutorial on piping frosting onto cupcakes. This tutorial is not all inclusive, but its a good introduction to the basics. I learned how to use frosting tips in a Wilton class I took a few years ago. The more often one works with tips the better you can develop a personalized technique :)

Additionally, I've attached links to other sites throughout this post to help point you towards additional guides. Have fun!

Supplies: scissors, icing bag (or zip lock bag), icing tip, and coupler (optional)

IF NOT USING A COUPLER
the most straight-forward approach
Drop the tip into a decorators bag and push it into the bottom of bag. Cut off a small portion of bottom of bag and push tip into hole.

IF USING A COUPLER

Step 1: Push coupler into bottom of bagStep 2: Cut off tip of bag. Be careful not to cut too much; you only want the coupler to poke out a little

Step 3: push tip onto coupler from the outside of bag; hold in place with your hand

Step 4: Push round attachment to coupler over tip and onto coupler; secure it in place

Step 5: I like to drop the bag into a large cup, turn the bottom of bag over cup lip and fill bag with frosting. Be mindful to not fill the bag too full-- when it looks half full, you have plenty of frosting.

Step 6: Hold the bag in whichever hand you prefer. Often I will hold the bag with my right hand and squeeze with my right hand, and then steady the bag over the cupcake with my left hand. Determining the correct position to hold the bag, adequate pressure control is something you will become more comfortable with in time.

I prefer to decorate the cupcakes on a wire rack and then transfer them to a serving platter.

Finished cupcakes!


Various Frosting Techniques
the caption below pictures tells you what decorating tip I used

1M swirl

1M swirl with fondant flowers on top

Round Tip

Beading with a Round Tip

Piping an outline with a Round Tip

Star Tip

I frosted these with a round tip and then dipped them into a shallow dish full of sprinkles.

cooking school samples from one of my student's last summer

More tutorials are available here:

The tutorial on this cupcake design is available at CakeJournal

Additional tutorials:

Cake Decorating

You Tube video clip

How to do Wilton's 1M swirl