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Decorating 101: Designs -
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Pastry bags,
fitted with a decorating tube, or
parchment cones can be filled with
various icings and then
piped onto desserts in
the form of designs.
Piping is one of the
prettiest ways to decorate and you can do a range of designs, from simple to
complex. Details include dots, leaves, borders,
basket-weave patterns, and flowers.
However, remember when piping designs that "less is always more". And, it
does not need to be perfect.
Before you pipe,
mark the cake top with a toothpick or bamboo stick, where the designs are going
to fall. To hold the bag, do so at whatever angle the design requires, over the
top or sides of the cake, with the tip a little above the surface. Press firmly
and evenly on the pastry bag (squeezing the top of the bag rather than the
middle) and move the tip at a uniform speed and pressure. When you get to the
end, release the pressure on the bag, stop moving the tube, and terminate the
design in different ways, depending upon the design.
Another way is to pipe onto a baking sheet lined
with waxed paper. Make stars, squiggles or even write "happy Birthday" or some
other message. Practice until you get it right, scraping off the paper and
reusing the icing as necessary. Once the designs harden in the freezer,
carefully peel them off and arrange them on the cake, taking care to handle them
gingerly. This method should work with any icing that hardens as it dries, such
as royal icing.
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TUBE TYPES
FOR PIPING DESIGNS WITH A
PASTRY BAG
OR
PARCHMENT CONE: I
especially like the ones from Wilton and Ateco.
Use a rack made to hold spools of thread to store your
decorating tips. It helps them dry and keeps them within easy reach.
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DECORATING PASTRY TIPS (TUBES): Are an integral
part of decorating.
Pastry tips are metal
cones which you squeeze icing or a medium through to form different shapes
and designs. The size and shape of the
opening on a decorating tube determines the type of decorations the tip will
produce.
There are 7 basic decorating tip groups:
round, star,
leaf, drop flower,
rose, basketweave
and specialized.
A new decorator should
have at least one or two tips from the first five tip groups. Then, as you
become more proficient in your decorating you will want to expand your
collection with tips from other groups.
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Round Tube: These versatile tubes
are smooth and round. Use to outline details, filling and piping in
areas, printing and writing message, figure piping, string work,
beads, dots, balls, stems, vines, flower centers, lattice, cornelli
lace. |
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Star Tube:
Star-shaped tips create the most popular decorations,
such as stars,
zigzags, shells,
ropes, puffs, rosettes, fleurs-de-lis and scrolls.
Star tips range in size form small to extra large.
The small ones with narrow teeth
are perfect for making a shell border or rosettes. Or a small star
tube with wide teeth makes a wider shell border and rosettes. |
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| Star tip
sizes used most often are numbers 14, 16, 18 and 21. Start tips with
larger openings like tips number 32, 199 and 4B make decorations for
larger cakes. |
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Leaf
Tube: The V-shaped openings of
these tubes make leaves with center
veins. |
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| The more
popular leaf tips include number 65, 67 and 352. |
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Petal
Tubes: These tubes have an opening that is wide at one
end, narrow at the other. This tear- drop shaped opening yields a
variety of petals that form flowers like the rose, carnation, daisy,
pansy and more. Petal tubes can also make ribbons, drapes and swags;
bows and streamers.
Drop Flower Tube:
Used for making different types of flowers.
Rose Tube:
Used for making roses, rosebuds, ruffles and sweet peas. |
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addition to creating flowers, Rose tips are use to make ribbon draped
swags and bows. The most common tips include numbers 101, 102, 103 and
104. Tips number 124 and 127 make larger flower petals. |
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Basketweave Tube:
Used for making smooth or ribbed stripes and a basketweave
design. Basketweave tips are decorating tips with one smooth side and
one serrated side. When short, ribbed horizontal stripes are
interwoven the effect is the basketweave. |
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| These tip
numbers include 45, 46, 47 and 48. |
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The specialized tips are decorating tips of various
other shapes and sizes. One of the most commonly used is the Fluted
tip. Tips in this group have tightly curved opening and are used to
make Lily of the Valley and Scalloped or Ribbon border.
Another type of specialty tip is the Hair tip. These
tips have tiny openings that will make a cluster of strings that look
like hair or grass. |
Fluted
tips: Included in this type are numbers 79, 80 and 81. |
 Hair
tips include 233 and 234. |
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NOTES: For piping
whipped cream or
meringue always
use a tube with a fairly large opening--3/8 to 1/2-inch. Piping
whipped icing with too small a tip will squeeze the air from it. If
using a star tube, choose one that has five or six large triangular
teeth rather than one with small, fine teeth. The design will be
blurred. For buttercream
and ganache, any
size of tube teeth can be used, the finer one compacting the ganache
and leaving an impression in it.
Keep the icing
covered or if perishable, refrigerated while not in use.
Anytime the icing gets too warm, place the filled pastry bag in the
refrigerator for a few minutes until slightly hardened. Warm to room
temperature before using, if applicable.
Usually,
"bleeding" colors on a decorated cake is a result of improper
storage or improper
thawing. An air tight cover on cake
stored at room temperature may encourage condensation to form which
can cause colors to bleed. Thaw decorated cakes in their original
wrappers helping to prevent colors from bleeding.
To secure
royal or buttercream icing flowers
or plastic decorations, pipe dots of icing
to "attach" the decoration to an iced cake as you would use glue.
Royal icing dries
hard and is more permanent than
buttercream. |
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Some Piped Design Types:
Latticework:
A piping detail that criss-crosses with an open
pattern.
Cornelli:
An elaborate piping technique that yields a lace-like pattern.
Dotted Swiss: A
piping technique that forms tiny dots in random patterns that resemble
a fine dot swiss fabric. |
 When
applying designs to the side of a cake, tilt the cake away from you;
prop up the cake stand on one side making sure it does not fall over.
It will make it easier to apply side decorations. |
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A simple cake design can be one with just piped
Buttercream beads or stars
piped around the perimeter of a frosted
cake. To pipe, you'll want your icing to be of
medium consistency; it
should hold a 1/2-inch peak. Use a Star Tube or a Round Tube, both of which can
be any diameter.
Some things to watch for:
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A point
where the tip was means that you have raised the tip out of the icing while
you are still squeezing. |
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A
depression where the tip was means that the icing built up around the tip
because it wasn't raised as the icing mounded. |
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Unwanted ripples on the sides indicate uneven pressure, incorrect bag angle
or icing which is too stiff. |
The star creates the most celebrated, yet easily
accomplished decorations! Puffy rosettes, majestic stars... scrolls... swirls...
garlands... shells... fleur-de-lis and more. Even some of the prettiest flowers
around are made with one quick squeeze! The serrated edges of the star tip make
ridges in the icing as you squeeze it out. The angle at which you hold your
icing bag and the way you move it determines the many different decorations you
can make. Today, you'll learn three essential decorations with your star tip.
Insert a coupler base in your
Reusable or Disposable
Pastry Bag and lock round, Star Tip #16
onto it with your coupler. ring.
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Star Tubes |
Fill bag half full with
medium consistency
Buttercream Icing.
(Can be tinted).
Positions:
- Bag: 90° angle (straight up)
- Tip: 1/4 in. above surface
Sequence:
1. Hold decorating bag straight up; the tip should be between 1/8
and 1/4 in. above surface, as shown.
2. Squeeze bag to form star, stop pressure and pull tip straight up and
away. Increase or decrease pressure to change star size.
| Using different star
tube sizes, you can vary the shapes. |
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Stars will be neatly formed only if you stop squeezing
before you pull tip away. See what happens if you forget and continue to
squeeze as you lift the bag (A), or if the tip is not kept straight up (B). |
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Star Border:
Star Border is a line of stars used to edge a cake or outline an area
on the cake surface. Make the stars as uniform as possible, and place them
close enough together so there are no gaps between. (More
about borders). |
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Star Fill-in:
Star Fill-in is a method of covering a section or the entire surface
of the cake with stars. Pipe the stars evenly and close together,
adjusting the tip position slightly each time so that the points of the
stars interlock and cover the entire area without any gaps. |
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Triple Star Tip: Triple Star Tip pipes
three stars close together at once. Stars are equal in size to tip 17. The
Triple Star Tip covers large areas of cake quickly and easily. As you pipe
stars, turn tip to interlock. |
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Double Stars: You can get fancy by
piping one star over another, in different
colors. First, pipe a larger
star on the cake. And, then pipe a smaller one in a different color in the
middle of it or in between, all the way around the perimeter of the
cake. |
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Insert a coupler
base in your Reusable or
Disposable Pastry Bag and
lock round, Star Tip #3 onto it with
your coupler ring.
 Fill bag half full with
medium consistency
Buttercream Icing.
(Can be Tinted
Positions:
- Bag: upright
- Tip: slightly above the surface
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Instead
of a pastry bag, sometimes I like to "pipe" beads of
royal icing (it works
the best) with a squeeze bottle with a thin tip. (I once used a clean
glue bottle !) Fill with icing with a thin spatula or a dinner knife.
Cut the tip to any size; start small at first. Squeeze to release tiny
beads of icing. Keep a pin in the tip's opening when not in use so
icing won't clog it. Before using, remove pin, and then, give bottle a
quick squirt on a piece of waxed paper to clear it. |
Sequence:
Hold bag upright with the end of tip slightly above the surface. Start
squeezing, applying a steady even pressure.
As the icing begins to build up, raise the
tip with it, but keep its end buried in the icing. To complete your shape,
stop squeezing as you bring the end of the tip to the surface. Use the
edge of the tip to shave off any point so that your bead is nicely
rounded. |
Some information and a few pictures from
www.wilton.com. Photos by
Tami Smith
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