15 Piping Hacks for Cake Decorating

Piping onto cakes adds colour and texture  and in this tutorial I'm going to share 15   piping hacks to make piping easier. Let's start with the basics: how to  fit a piping bag with a piping tip.   Drop your tip into the piping bag and push  it to the end and then use scissors to score   about halfway up the piping tip. Push the  piping tip out of the way, cut along the   line you scored and then when you push the tip  back down it should sit snugly within the bag.   Before we go any further let's talk about how  to choose a piping tip. They come in lots of   different shapes and sizes and keep in mind  the size of your cake and the size of your   decorations, for example the 1M tip on the left is  perfect for a rope border on top of an 8 inch cake   but the #199 tip on the right is more suitable  for a nest on top of a tiny 4 inch cake.   Another basic but useful hack: how to  fill a piping bag without making a mess.   You can spoon frosting straight into a piping  bag but you'll probably get frosting all over   the edges of the bag and that will get all  over your hands when you pipe. Instead,   fold the top of the bag over before spooning the  buttercream in or even better, use a glass and   fold the top of the bag over the rim of the glass  to hold the piping bag open while you fill it.   Unfold the bag and it will be clean as you  hold it to pipe. Grip the bag and push the   frosting down to the piping tip and then twist  the bag to apply pressure to the frosting,   which makes it much easier to squeeze through  the tip so much less strain on your wrist.   Don't fill the bag more than three-quarters full  or it will be difficult to grip onto as you pipe. Before you pipe onto a cake, chill the cake for at  least an hour in the fridge to set the frosting on   the cake and that way you can rest your piping  tip right up against the cake without damaging   the frosting on the cake and since the frosting on  the cake is cold and firm and not soft and sticky   anymore, the frosting you're piping won't pick  up any of the frosting from the cake, which would   then blend with the colour in the piping bag.  Also, frosting is heavy so when you're doing a lot   of piping it's a really good idea to have a cold  cake which is firmer and more stable and won't   droop underneath the weight of the frosting you're  piping. To pipe swirls with two different colours   put your piping tip into a piping bag and fold  it over a glass to hold it open and then spoon   one colour of frosting into one half of the bag,  pushing it against that side of the bag and then   spoon another colour into the other half, pushing  the colours down with your spatula and then shake   the bag a few times before you twist it so that  both colours go right down to the piping tip and   that way they'll both come out together when  you pipe. To double check you can squeeze to   pipe a little bit of frosting into a bowl first  until both colours come out at the same time. To incorporate even more colours into your piping  spread out a piece of plastic wrap like cling film   or saran wrap and pipe or spread lines of coloured  frosting along it. Use as many colours as you like   and of course the wider and longer the area you  cover with these lines, the more frosting you'll   have so the more swirls you'll be able to pipe  onto your cake. Roll it into a log and cut off one   end and then push that end down into the piping  bag and cutting it means that all of the colors   will come out together to pipe beautiful colourful  swirls or whatever style of piping you like.   Couplers are another way to effortlessly create  designs with lots of colours or textures,   or both. Couplers come in two pieces. Push the  bigger piece down to the end of a piping bag   and then you'll attach the piping tip  over the outside of the piping bag,   screwing it on with the ring that comes with  the coupler and that will hold it in place   as you pipe. Use the piping bag as normal  and when you want to use that piping tip   with another colour just unscrew the ring, pull  the tip off and attach it to another piping bag   also fitted with a coupler. To use that tip with  another colour of frosting you can either wash   the piping tip in between different colours or  here's a quick tip for speedy cake decorating:   unscrew the tip from the first colour and move  it straight onto the next bag of colour without   cleaning it but before you pipe onto the cake,  squeeze the frosting out of the bag until you   don't see the old colour coming through anymore  and you've just cleaned the tip in two seconds!   I love using couplers because you can switch back  and forth between colours as often as you like   instead of piping for example all of the  turquoise onto the sides and top of the cake   and then doing all of the coral so couplers give  you creative flexibility to pipe whatever you like   whenever you like! If you prepare your piping bags  in advance or take a break in the middle of using   them the buttercream at the end of the piping  tip will dry out and crust because it's exposed   to air. To avoid that, wrap the piping tips in  cling film or saran wrap to keep them airtight   and that will keep the buttercream  soft and sticky until you pipe with it.   Disposable piping bags are washable so you can  use them again and again and again but eventually   you'll notice holes in them and frosting will  ooze out of those holes. No problem - wipe   the frosting off the outside of the piping bag  and then cover the holes with tape so that you   can use that piping bag to finish off your cake  without dribbling frosting all over your design.   If you run out of frosting while you're piping  you can refill the piping bag but you're likely   to trap a pocket of air in between the old  frosting and the new frosting. Before you use   the refilled bag, squeeze that last little bit  of old frosting out of the bag until you hear a   burp. Let's see that again closely. You're looking  for a little explosion of air and you want that to   happen in a bowl not onto the beautiful piping  on your cake. You don't have to use piping tips   for piping and I'll show you two alternatives  now. Fill a piping bag with no piping tip if the   texture of your piping doesn't matter for example  to apply the filling and frosting onto a cake.   Piping it on instead of spreading it is much  quicker and you won't pull crumbs off the cake   if you pipe it and then spread and smooth it so  your frosting will be beautifully crumb-free.   You can even pipe without a piping tip or a  piping bag by using ziploc bags or sandwich   bags instead. Squeeze the frosting down and  cut a tiny piece of one corner to pipe through.   These bags are perfect if you want to use lots  of colours but don't have lots of piping bags   and if you only want to pipe lines or dots so you  don't need the shapes that are cut out of the ends   of piping tips. You can create surprisingly  intricate designs by piping with ziploc bags.   Let's talk about leftovers. You'll almost always  have leftover frosting in your piping bags or   ziploc bags. You can refrigerate it for two weeks  or freeze it for two months before using it on   another cake. Just let it come to room temperature  first and then squeeze it into a piping bag   and voila! Reusable for another cake design!  I hope these hacks are useful. I break down   hundreds of cake decorating techniques on my cake  school so that they're clear and easy to follow,   step by step with close-up video instructions  and explanations of what can go wrong and how   to fix it. You can take individual courses or join  my ClubPLUS for access to all of my MiniCourses,   MasterCourses and Live Workshops.  Click up here in the top of the   screen to visit my cake school or go to  www.britishgirlbakes.com Thank you for watching! you

Channel: British Girl Bakes

Views: 182,746

Keywords: buttercream cake, easy cake decorating ideas, cake decorating, cake decorating videos for beginners, cake decorating ideas, buttercream cake decorating, cake decorating tutorial, british girl bakes, cake hacks, piping hacks, piping tips, how to use piping

Id: XYc7vqHtmUk

Length: 7min 32sec (452 seconds)

Published: Tue May 03 2022