It’s Tip Friday. And todays tip is Piping
Piping With a Pastry Bag
Ok. You have now prepared your favorite cake or cupcakes.
Or perhaps a large cookie for that special occasion.
Now comes the fun part. Making it special with designs and writing!
But where do you start?
In this tutorial I will explain the three simple steps to making that perfect design with piping.
Fill a piping bag with some of your icing. I use buttercream as it is eaier,
Don’t have a piping bag? No problem!
Get a plastic bag. (I use a sandwich baggie.)
Fill it on a diagonal with your icing.
Now cut off the corner. You are ready to start!
Squeeze from the top of the bag toward the tip as you go.
Gather the slack in the palm of your hand to maintain pressure.
That is all you need to do!
Piping is a basic technique that can add a lot of polish to the look of your baked goods.
See Filling a Pastry Bag for hints on getting set up.
Remember to use a twist tie to close the top of the pastry bag. This will keep its contents from backing up over your hand as you squeeze.
Stop squeezing before lifting the bag as you pipe, to have a cleaner separation point.
There are a myriad of tips you can use for piping. They all have different results.
Below you will find the 4 most popular used in my home.
Disclaimer: I am a messy decorator. All piping you see on this blog has been done by my daughter-in-law.
Types of Piping Tips
Having the right decorating tips is essential for any bakery, grocery store, or catering company because it gives you options when decorating baked goods. Piping tips come either individually or in sets, so you can order exactly the tip you need or a kit for getting started with decorating.
Piping bag tips are made of durable materials like stainless steel or nickel-plated steel to make them long lasting. But, they need to be hand washed and dried immediately after to prevent rust from forming. Additionally, you should never wash your decorating tips in the dishwasher.
Piping tips are also classified into different families based on the size and shape of their openings, and different families are used for different purposes. Below we list some common piping tip types and what they’re used for.
Tip TypeS And Common Uses
| Plain Piping Tips | Outlining details, writing, adding dots, filling in flower centers, and completing complicated lattice and lace work |
| Leaf Piping Tips | Making plain, ruffled, or stand-up leaves |
| Drop Flower Piping Tips | Making one-squeeze flowers (the number of cuts on the tip determines the number of petals on the flower) |
| Flower Piping Tips | Making roses, ruffled flowers, cake borders, and more |
| Petal Piping Tips | Designing flower petals, curved decorations, and borders |
| Grass Piping Tips | Adding grass to cakes |
| Ruffle Piping Tips | Creating ribbons, ruffles, swags, bows, scallops, and edges |
| Basketweave Piping Tips | Adding shells, stars, rosettes, and flowers to baked goods |
| Open Star Piping Tips | Adding shells, stars, rosettes, and flowers to baked goods |
| French Star Piping Tips | Creating shells, stars, flowers, and scalloped designs, as well as adding frosting on top of cupcakes |
| Closed Star Piping Tips | Frosting cupcakes and designing stars, fleurs-de-lis, and flowers |
| Swirl Piping Tips | Producing borders and outlines |
| St. Honore Piping Tips | Creating St. Honore cakes |
| Russian Piping Tips | Adding delicate and intricate flowers to cakes and cupcakes |
| Cake Icers | Quickly icing the sides of cakes |
| Bismark Piping Tips | Filling donuts |
Pastry Tip Sizes and Shapes
Decorating tips are assigned different numbers based on the shape and size of their openings. Below is a graphic that shows some of the most common pastry tip numbers and what the result of using them is. 
Here are some more ideas for you. Tip Friday Cookie Doneness or Tip Friday Filling A Pastry Bag.
Great tips for piping, you do such beautiful work! Hope you are having a really good week and thanks so much for sharing with us at Full Plate Thursday!
Miz Helen
Thank you Miz Helen. I hope you are enjoying your week. Take care!
Great tip. I have a devil of a time squeezing the bag every time I try to pipe. I need to try your instructions. Thanks for sharing at the What’s for Dinner Party!! Have a great weekend.
With all the arthritis in my hands I have a terrible time evn opening a zip lock bag at times. LOL. I hope it gets easier for you! Thank you Helen. I hope you enjoyed your Valentine’s Day!
I haven’t really ever tried doing this, and love your tips and appreciate you sharing. Thanks!
Thank you Chas.. Piping is an art. I am not artistic so I delegate to Amy. LOL. Enjoy!
I’m useless at piping! I keep meaning to do a course, but never get round to it. Instead I always rely on internet tipsters! #WhatsForDinner
I will never get piping. Even when my hands were steady it looked like Happy Birthday was written by a Dr. and swirls and such were a no no. When my son had turned one I made a cookie monster cake. The whole thing was tiny pointy plops. My great idea was to use royal icing to make it stiff. It looked wonderful! At least until we tried to cut it. Even my electric knife wouldn’t do it!! LOL. Thanks for the visit and comment! Enjoy your week!
Your red velvet cupcakes look absolutely delicious, and if my grandson was here and he saw them he say oh grandma can you make those for me?
Thank you for sharing on #omhgww this week I hope you have a lovely week Marilyn!🌷💕
Thank you Karren. I think that the added beets not only make them moister but that deep color. I hope you give them a try! And enjoy your time away.
We found the best way to learn piping was just to start practicing. We often start with a new tip on a paper plate to see what it does and learn how to control it. I do find the consistency of the frosting can make all the difference.
That is a great way to learn piping Joanne. Using a nonporous and firmer surface allows you more control. I ASTILL have not mastered even the basic writing. Thanks to my daughter-in-law my \cakes are much prettier. I do best on a rectangular cake where I can just smooth with a spatula! Enjoy your week.
I’ve always just twisted the top closed, but then you have to worry about keeping the bag closed as well as whatever technique you’re trying. The twisty tie is an obvious answer I hadn”t really thought of! Thanks for sharing on the Friday Funday Blog Hop #FFBH!
Until I read about Jamie I never thought of it either.
Great tips! I’m a klutz with a pastry bag – actually I wish I would have seen this before I made my lemon cake last week, lol! Thanks for sharing this with us on Throwback Thursday!
Mollie
Mollie I still am not good with peaks. I end up smoothing them with a frosting spatula.
Hi Marilyn – you have so many great tips on your blog! Although I no longer do a lot of baking (used to do it all the time!), I still like to create some special baked goods for holidays. With Easter just around the corner, we will be doing Hot Cross Buns and this just might help me get them right this year! See you this week at the Favorite Things Blog Hop, Nina @ Vintage Mama’s Cottage
Thank you so much Nina for the kind words. I remember my first time using a pastry bag. I had cream filling from my nose to my toes! And the peaks of cream hit the drop lamp in my kitchen. No lie, the kids took pictures and threaten to post them!
These are great tips, at the caterer I work for we use the piping bag for so many things, pretty butter, cream cheese, smoked salmon dip, etc. I always have an issue with keeping the bag shut, DUH, a twist tie! Brilliant!
I hear you Nikki. Until I watched the girl in Kroger I would never have thought of it. Have a good week.
Great tip Marilyn!
Thank you Sandra for coming by and leaving your comment. Have a Great day!
Great tip again! Especially the part to stop squeezing before lifting the bag. I think I always think I will get a better finish if I keep squeezing, but then it turns into a mess.
I know just what you mean CJ! I always have that wimpy droop when I finish. I have struggled trying to use a frosting spatula to cut off the end! What a disaster until I read this technique. Thanks for leaving a comment!
Great tips as always Marilyn – thank you for sharing with Pin worthy Wednesday
You are welcome! I love to party with you.
I love frosting things! I usually just twist the bag, but the twist tie is even better. Thanks for sharing this tip on Merry Monday. 🙂
Tou are welcome Dee. Sometimes we don’t realize we do things the hard way! I always do thrm the hard way. Have a greatweek!
You always have such great tips!! Thanks for sharing on the “What’s for Dinner” linky party!
Thanks Helen! I am sure you know all these things but it is nice to be validated! See you soon.
Definitely a great tip! 🙂
Thanks for joining Cooking and Crafting with J & J!
Thank you Jess for your kind words.
Thanks for sharing your tip with us at #MMBH! My girls love to make cupcakes & cakes, they’re the frosters. 🙂
XOXO
Being the froster is the best job! You get to lick your fingers as you “clean up” the edges! Thanks for commenting.