Piping Buttercream Frosting
You can pipe frosting onto any baked good you'd like. You don't have to be artistic or talented, you just need to practice. It's easy and most importantly, it's fun!
Making these cupcakes, I've realized I need to start practicing with more tips and designs for more creative designs. There is more to piping than the Wilton #32 tip!
Start with a cooled baked good and a batch of buttercream frosting. The recipe lists 3-4 cups of powdered sugar. For piping I use four cups for a stiff buttercream that pipes with detailed lines.
Piping supplies are affordable and can be found at craft and culinary stores. I buy mine from Michaels, Sur La Table, and A.C. Moore . All supplies will cost less than $10 total.
Tools: piping bags, couplers, tips, and rubber bands. I use Wilton supplies, but there are other quality brands other bakers prefer. Feel free to try any. For this post I'm focusing on what you can do with a Wilton #32 tip.
Instructions for filling a piping bag
First you have to put your coupler into the piping bag. Couplers have two parts. One goes on the inside of the bag before you add frosting. The other goes on the outside and they screw together. The coupler stabilizes the flow of frosting and allow you to switch out different tips as you decorate.
Tips
The tips are typically metal, today I used the Wilton #32 tip. Wilton lists the tip number directly on the side of the tip.
The tip goes on the outside of the bag and is held by the screw part of the coupler.
Getting frosting into a bag can be messy, but here's a cleaner way. Use a tall cup like the one pictured below. It has space for the frosting as the bag is filled. Fold the bag over the sides and spoon the frosting in.
This makes it easy to bring the sides of the bag up and use a rubber band to secure. Make the rubber band as tight as possible. There are clips sold with baking supplies, but a rubber band works just fine.
If you're going to use the frosting another day, you can leave them just like this in the refrigerator and pull them out an hour before you want to use them. The bags are airtight at this point, so your frosting will stay fresh.
When you're ready to frost, cut the ends off the bags, and screw your tip onto the coupler.
Piping
Hold the piping bag with both hands. The top hand does all the work, the bottom hand is for support. Your dominant hand should be on top since it's doing the work! The key to making designs uniform is to apply consistent pressure at the TOP of the bag for a consistent amount of time. You do not need to squeeze hard, just a little bit of pressure.
I am sure there are official names for the things I've listed you can do with a #32 tip, but I've given them names describing what you need to do with the frosting bag to get the effect pictured.
If the frosting gets too thin, put it in the fridge for a few minutes to let it harden.
#1 Hold for a half-second
Learn this technique first, because you'll use it in every design in this post. It's how you should end every squeeze of frosting for a clean finish.
I'm not sure if a half-second is the right amount of time! Very briefly hold about a 1/4 inch above the cake, then apply pressure to the top of the bag allowing a little frosting to come out, then push down then stop applying pressure and pull the bag up. This creates a peak. The up down movement should be done very quickly.
Here's what you can do with Hold for a half-second. Same motion, over and over with different designs.
#2 Swirl
You're going to circle your wrist to create this effect. Your field will be the whole cake. Always start on the outside edge and circle inward so you can use the Hold for a half-second to finish the top. If you use two colors you do a full layer of each color and stack on top of each other.
#3 Mini-Swirl
Same motion as the large swirl, but make smaller circles with your wrist. Then repeat each swirl next to each other. The yellow one below is mini-swirls stacked on each other, the others are side-by side swirls.
#4 Hold For Three Seconds
Same technique as the hold for a half-second, but you hold a lot longer. The key is consistent pressure with the top hand.
#5 Lines
These aren't quite as pretty, but you can do lines too. Turn the bag to the side and move the piping bag, applying consistent pressure.
#6 Combos
When you combine them together. A swirl with a hold for a half-second and a stacked hold for a half second.
Such a variety!
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