The more you get into decorating cakes, the more you’ll find paper piping bags indispensable. Learning how to make them is a fundamental skill, which will prove invaluable.
If you decorate cakes regularly, then having small piping bags close at hand is essential – particularly if you’re using small quantities of icing to pipe intricate details or using lots of small amounts in different colours. It’s possible to buy readymade paper piping bags in a range of sizes, but it’s far more cost effective to make your own, using greaseproof paper. Though the construction may seem a little fiddly at first, but the more you practise, the easier it becomes. All you need to get started is a square of greaseproof paper, a ruler, some scissors and some patience.
Choosing your paper
It’s possible to make piping bags out of greaseproof paper, baking parchment and baking paper, as they all hold in moisture well – and it’s worth paying for the best quality you can afford. Any other kind of paper will quickly get soggy and the tip won’t hold its shape. As a guide, professional cake decorators opt for bleached greaseproof paper or parchment, which is white rather than brown.
Step-by-Step Making a Piping Bag
- Unroll your greaseproof paper and cut out an
- even square. Fold it in half diagonally, then smooth sharply along the crease.
- Cut along the fold to create two equal triangles and put one triangle to one side.
- Pick up one corner of the remaining triangle and start rolling it into a cone shape, so that the point of the cone is along what was the longest edge of the triangle. Stop rolling when you get to the centre of the triangle.
- Pick up the opposite corner of the paper triangle and fold it tightly over the rolled-up cone. It should meet the other corner at the top of the cone to make a triangle.
- Holding the loose triangle ends, shuffle them back and forth to tighten up the cone. It’s ready when you’ve got a neat, sharp tip.
- Fold the loose triangle ends over and tuck them inside the bag. Then fold again two or three times to secure it in place.
- Snip the end of the piping bag to make a small hole or snip a slightly larger hole and drop a piping nozzle inside the bag.
- Using a spatula or small spoon, half fill the bag with icing and fold the corners of the bag into the centre, then fold the top over again to secure it.
