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There are so many piping tips you can buy. Where should you start? In this tutorial, I'll show you the best 10 piping tips and how to use them
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A 1M tip is usually the first piping tip you buy to pipe swirls onto cupcakes. It's this star-shaped tip and you can pipe these same cupcake-style swirls onto the top of cakes, either tall swells or just pipe once or twice around to make shorter swells like this
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These work really well on naked cakes too, like number cakes, because the pretty texture is visible around the sides and also holds its shape well under the weight of the cake layer on top
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You can use the swell technique in reverse to pipe these rosettes, starting in the middle and spiraling outwards, covering the cake and filling in any gaps with a little squeeze to pipe these pretty star blossoms
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Leave the piping like this or freeze it and then scrape around the cake with a hot metal
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cake comb to reveal a cross-section of the piping for this unique, flat, printed effect
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which looks like fondant or an icing sheet, but it's just butter cream
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Rope borders can be piped with a 1M tip too, where you pipe links of butter cream with overlapping
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circles around the top of a cake to add some height and texture
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If you already have a 1M tip but want to branch out, I love the 2D tip, which pipes softer swells
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with more wavy folds. This is considered a closed star tip because of the way the prongs close in around the tip
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You can also use a 2D tip for drop flowers where you squeeze the bag to push the butter cream out and then twist to let the petals fan out sideways and then stop squeezing as you pull away You can do this straight onto a cake or it easier to pipe downwards onto a silicon
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mat or onto parchment paper. And after piping them, you need to chill them so that they firm up
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before you can pick them up and press them onto a frosted cake. These are beautiful and so easy to
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pipe, with just a single squeeze through a 2D piping tip. Continuing with the star shapes, do you see how the prongs of
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this star are much shorter than the 1M, and there are lots more of them
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Small star tips, like this number 32 or a number 199, are great for borders
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because they add texture to the beads around the cake. Squeeze, let the frusting bulge out to form a dot
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and then stop squeezing as you pull away to leave a little tail on the bead
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Repeat to overlap the tail of the previous bead, continuing all around the cake to make a textured, beaded border
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You can do this around the bottom or the top of a cake, or both
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You can also use these piping tips for writing messages, and the texture in these letters makes piping them much more forgiving
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than using a round tip, where every little wobble of your wrist will cause a wiggle in the line
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that's really noticeable when the line is smooth from a round tip instead of textured from a star tip
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Large star tips, like a 4B or 6B, are great for piping on top of a cake
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because with just a squeeze and pull away, you'll create quite dramatic texture for a border on top of the cake
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or just as an accent on the top or side of a cake. Russian tips or flower nozzles are very different to the tips you seen so far because each tip will pipe several different shapes and different colors too Layer different colours within a piping bag using a different colour around the middle and the outer edge
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As you push the frosting through the tip, you'll create every part of the flower with just a single squeeze
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Look for tips with dots in the middle to make these stamens or with several curved lines to make petals that
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wrap around like on a rose. The only part of the flower these tips don't make
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are the leaves, but don't worry, there's a tip for that. A leaf tip, like a number 352, looks like jaws from the side
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and as you squeeze the piping bag you'll push the frosting out sideways to make a leaf
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and as you stop squeezing and pull away, you'll leave a point on the leaf
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You can use this same technique for succulence, piping a ring of these leaves and then another ring overlapping them
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and adding a few more little leaves in the middle, squeezing for less time to make these shorter
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and you have a succulent. Okay, round tips. A small round tip, like a number two or number three or number four
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can be used for pointer list designs, where you make shapes with hundreds or thousands of tiny piped dots
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These shapes are just simple outlines made by pushing cookie cutters into the frosting
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but once they're covered with colourful dots, the design looks elaborate and really eye-catching
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You can use tiny dots to make messages too, which is great if your handwriting is terrible
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like mine is. And you can write messages with lines too by squeezing and pulling the piping bag to make
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letters and numbers. With a small round tip you can create stunning designs by tracing a design using
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buttercream onto acetate or parchment paper or wax paper and then lift it up and wrap it around a cake Chill the cake and then unwrap it to reveal a gorgeous design frosted onto the cake
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I have a full tutorial on this cake and the link is at the top of the screen and in the video description
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With a medium round tip, you can pipe beaded borders around the bottom or the top of a cake
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using the same technique as with the star tip earlier in this video
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Squeeze, hold for a moment and then pull away as you use. stop squeezing the bag to leave a tail on the dot. Cover up that tail with the next dot
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continuing around the cake to make this pretty dainty border. A large round tip like a 1A can also
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be used for borders on top of a cake by piping a dot and then releasing your pressure on the
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piping bag as you pull upwards to leave a peek on each dot. A large round tip can be used to pipe
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scallops on a cake by piping a dot and then swishing it sideways with an offset spatchelor or the back of a
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spoon. This is a quick way to add texture to a cake and a great way to avoid smooth frosting
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in case you struggle with that. Finally, petal tips are of course great for piping petals
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for pansies and roses and other flowers with petals that need some movement around the outer edge
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Petal tips are also used for piping ruffled frosting, in layers going up or down a cake
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and for vintage swags and vintage ribbons too. Tell me in the comments which piping tip you're going to
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buy next. Learn hundreds of ways to use piping tips to decorate cakes on my cake school on
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British Girlbakes.com, where you'll find online courses and memberships to take your cake decorating
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skills to the next level. I hope to see you there. Thanks for watching
