Piping Tips for Cake Decorating

You can add decorations to any type of cake with some icing, a piping tip and a frosting bag.

Piping tips are metal or plastic tubes that are attached to a bag of icing or frosting. The icing is squeezed from the bag through the tube to create different designs. There are several different types of piping tips, each creating unique and different designs. The most common tips are round, star, leaf, rose, basket weave and drop flower.

Round Tips

Round tips are the most common tip and come in various sizes. These tips are used to write messages with frosting, to create balls or dots, to pipe in certain areas and eve for creating figures. Round tips are very versatile and can be used for many types of designs.

Star Tips

Star tips are used to create designs such as stars and zigzag patterns. The tip itself is zigzag in shape. Smaller ones with narrow tips can be used to make rosettes. The larger the opening, the larger the rosettes, puffs or stars will be.

Flower Tips

There are many tips that are used to create flowers. Leaf tubes have a V-shaped opening that is used to make realistic-looking veins with center veins. Petal tubes have openings that create tear-shaped petals. These petals can be used to make roses, daisies, and many other types of flowers. Drop flower tubes are also tips that can be used to make flowers. A special tip, called a rose tube tip, can be used to specifically make roses.

Basket-weave Tips

Basket-weave tips can be used to make smooth or ribbed lines when making a basket-weave design. These tips are smooth on one side of the tip and ridged on the other side.

References

• "1,000 Ideas for Decorating Cupcakes, Cookies & Cakes" : Sandra Salamony and Gina M. Brown: 2010