What Is the Correct Way to Ice a Cupcake With a Piping Bag?

A piping bag is the most versatile tool in a cake decorator's arsenal, provided you know how to use it properly. The tool has several components, and assembling those pieces intimidates many novice decorators. Preparing a piping bag of icing or frosting requires minimal time, however. Once your bag is ready for action you can begin honing your application technique. There are two basic piping applications for cupcake decorating; both of them are straightforward and become routine with minutes of practice. Add this to my Recipe Box.

Filling the Piping Bag

Cut 1 inch off the narrow end of the piping bag with large scissors or kitchen shears.

Twist the ends of a coupler to unscrew the two pieces. You will then have a ring and a cone-shaped piece.

Insert the cone-shaped piece, narrow end first, into the piping bag. Push it down to the narrow opening of the bag. The coupler should be protruding from the opening in the bag about 1/2 to 3/4 of an inch.

Slide the wide end of a decorative piping tip onto the protruding coupler. Slide the coupler ring onto the decorative tip. Screw it onto the coupler to secure the tip to the bag. Using a coupler enables you to remove a decorative tip from the bag to vary icing patterns or colors.

Scoop prepared icing into a piping bag liner with a spatula or large spoon. Fill no more than three-fourths of the bag.

Twist the liner above the icing to keep the contents from squeezing out while you work. Trim the closed tip of the liner with scissors to allow icing out of it.

Insert the narrow end of the filled liner into the piping bag. Ensure the tip of the liner reaches into the coupler at the end of the bag. Twist the piping bag in the same position you twisted the liner.

Piping a Continuous Swirl

Hold the tip of the piping bag 1/8 inch from the top surface of the cupcake. Position the tip at the outer edge of the cake.

Squeeze the bag gently to pipe icing out of it. Move the bag in a circle above the cupcake to outline the top outer edge in icing.

Move the bag in a continuous circular motion to spiral the icing toward the center of the cupcake.

Lift the piping bag as you reach the center of the cupcake to start building the design vertically.

Release the hand that is squeezing the icing out once the center peak is about 1 1/2 to 2 inches tall. Continue lifting the bag straight up as you stop squeezing. This finishes the icing peak with a point.

Piping Shaped Beads

Hold the tip of the piping bag directly to the top surface of the cupcake. Position the tip in the center of the cake.

Squeeze the bag gently to pipe out the icing. Pipe a pea-sized bead of icing onto the cupcake.

Release the hand that is squeezing the bag as soon as the pea-sized dollop is on the cupcake. Lift the bag as you squeeze and release to give a tapered finish to the bead of icing. The finished shape should be 1/8 to 1/4 inch high and as wide as the opening in the decorative tip.

Hold the tip of the piping bag to the top surface of the cupcake immediately next to the short icing design you just piped.

Apply short, shaped beads of icing across the entire surface of the cupcake, working outward from the center.

Tips

- Unscrew the coupler ring, remove the first decorative tip and place a different decorative tip on the bag to change the pattern of one icing color while you work. Unscrew the coupler ring, remove the decorative tip and place it on a different piping bag with its own coupler to make one icing pattern in multiple colors while you work.