Become an ice princess with our complete guide to piping and decorating. 

Frosted tips  

Firstly, icing needs to be stable to make it ‘pipeable’. American buttercream, also called butter icing, is easy and quick to make. Butter icing is also fun to shape and manipulate, and it takes on colouring in a lovely way.  

1. Butter must be at room temperature to ensure even mixing. If you have fridge-cold butter, cut it into equal slices and microwave on defrost until you can easily butter bread with it (or a lovely indent is made when poking with a finger). 
2. Sifting the icing sugar is vital. If you don’t, your buttercream will still work, but you will be dealing with clumps of icing sugar that you can never completely remove. Halfway through mixing, and at the very end, remove the whisk attachment and properly scrape down the sides and base of your mixing bowl to ensure you bring the lesser-mixed sections (appearing as a darker yellow) to the centre. 
3. Colour your icing by separating portions of mixture into smaller bowls. Douse the end of a toothpick in your desired colour and swirl this through the buttercream. Mix well with a spoon to see how strong the colour becomes, then repeat, or if needed, add in drops to reach your desired hue. 
4. Fit a nozzle in the piping bag before filling. Cut between ½ – 1cm off the tip, if using a disposable piping bag, and push the nozzle to fit snugly against the plastic. (The bag shouldn’t bunch out or have any gaps.) Hold the bag in the middle using your dominant hand, folding the excess bag open over your hand. Use a spoon or spatula to add scoops of icing into the bag, sliding the spoon over your thumb to scrape off excess. Push the icing down towards the nozzle. Fill until your piping bag is maximum ⅔ full, then twist or tie the end. (Don’t overfill the bag or it won’t close and icing will spill out.) 

Practice makes perfect!  

To practise piping, grease four corners of a tray and place baking paper on top, pushing down to secure. Hold the tied end of the bag with one hand and place your other hand a bit further down onto the bulge of icing. Press from the top hand to squeeze icing and pipe onto the baking paper, swirling, dotting, pushing and pulling as you wish. You can always scoop your practice patterns back into a bowl to use again. If you hold the icing for too long, it will become looser due to the heat from your hand. If this happens, pop in the fridge for a few minutes to firm up. On the flip side, if your icing becomes too hard when in the bag, press it in between your fingers to help warm it up.  

Patterns aplenty

1 Round nozzle/ plain savoy tube

This nozzle makes perfect pillowy teardrops.

2 French star (ATECO #19)

Creates fluted rounds that make a fun border for a circus-themed cake.

3 Open star (ATECO #32)

Creates a 6-pointed star or funky border.

4 Ruffle tube/skirt(ATECO #97)

Perfect for creating a light ruffled skirt around a border.

5 Ribbon/wavy petal nozzle (BAKING TIN #119)

Creates thin ribbons great for Victorian cakes.

6 Shell rope nozzle (ATECO #98)

Perfect for a delicate sea-shell border.

7 Small round nozzle

Any small round nozzle is great for writing on cakes or fine detailed dots or petals.

8 Basket weave nozzle (ATECO #48)

A trendy pattern used in a squiggle around cakes, but great for basket weaves too.

Vanilla buttercream

This makes enough to cover a 30x23cm cake and decorate it with all the twirls and patterns. You can halve the recipe to make less, or place leftovers in an airtight container and freeze for up to months.

Makes 1.5kg 

Ingredients

2 cups (500g) butter, room temperature 
7¾ cups (1kg) icing sugar, sifted
2 tsp vanilla essence
¼ cup (60ml) milk
Food colouring of choice 

Method

1. Place butter in a bowl and beat for 1 minute to loosen it up. 
2. Add half the icing sugar and slowly beat through (this prevents icing sugar from billowing up everywhere).
3. Beat on medium until incorporated, about 2 minutes. Scrape the sides and base with a spatula.
4. Add second half of icing sugar and beat on high until creamy, light and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Scrape sides and base again.
5. Add vanilla for flavour and milk to loosen slightly.
6. If colouring, divide into the number of bowls you need for each colour.

The icing on the cake 

To finish your newly decorated cake, we suggest adding one or two extra sparkles such as: 

-Colour matched sprinkles or edible glitter.
-Chopped fruit, chocolate or biscuits, sweets or nuts (try match these to the flavour of your cake).
-3D fondant decorations themed to your cake such as animals or figurines.
-Candles or cake toppers. 

Recipe & styling: Sjaan van der Ploeg
Photography: Zhann Solomons

Also read: Raspberry and vanilla mille feuille with Selati Sugar 

The post Top decorating tips with butter icing  appeared first on MyKitchen.

’Tis the season for the aroma of baked goods to fill your home. ’Tis also the season for holiday decorations – so why not decorate your annual festive cookies? Whether you’re a seasoned baker or a beginner, try one of these three cookie-decorating techniques (and great ideas) to add flair to your cookies and make them the stars of your holiday spread. 

Outlining 

As with colouring in a picture, lining your edges is the first step to decorating your cookies. By outlining the cookie, you prevent the icing from spilling over the edges when filling it in. Make use of a piping bag with a small round tip and fill it with royal icing. Make sure the icing is thick enough to hold its shape, but still thin enough to spread easily. Line the edges and wait a few minutes for them to dry.  

@layaan_isaacs Decorate some gingerbread cookies with me From a diy gingerbread house cookie set, made by @tiny_bakes on Instagram • • • #gingerbread #gingerbreadhouse #gingerbreadman #christmas #diy #cookies #support #smallbusiness #capetown #southafrica #fyp #foryoupage ♬ Sleepy Cat – Calming Cat Music

Flooding 

The technique to cover the entire surface of the cookie with icing is called flooding. This technique requires a looser consistency of icing than you would need for outlining. Using a piping bag, continuously follow the outline of your cookie until the entire cookie is covered. Once done, leave for an hour for the icing to set and harden.  

Check out this video to see if the consistency of your icing is ready for flooding: 

@thecookieboxclub Does your royal icing spill over the sides of your cookies? Or perhaps it’s too stiff? This is my secret to perfectly flooded cookies! You can either drop some icing or make a line in the middle but it should settle in that amount of time. My royal icing recipe is here: @thecookieboxclub #tiktokcookieschool #cookies #decoratedcookies #cookiedecorating #sugarcookies #bakingtiktok #cookie #sugar #baking #recipe #royalicing ♬ original sound – Mystiquerealm

Marbling 

You don’t need to be a skilled baker for this technique, but the result will impress all your friends. Marbling is a wet-on-wet icing technique and is used to create a single layer of icing with two or more colours bleeding together to form a beautiful, blended effect. The trick is to work quickly while the icing is still wet. Once your cookie is flooded, pipe horizontal lines across the surface. Then, use a toothpick and drag it from the top of the cookie downwards through the icing and continue doing so across the cookie, blending the two colours. 

@thegracefulbaker Excited to share some easy Christmas designs #christmas #decoratedcookies #satisfying ♬ How Christmas Is Supposed To Be – Gary Barlow

Try these 5 cute decorating ideas just in time for the festive season:  

1. Gingerbread cookies 

@emmas_sweets_ GIANT GINGERBREAD ! This cookie is almost 6 1/2” . #gingerbread #letsmakecookies #gingerbreadcookies #gingerbreadman #cookiedecorating #cookiesoftiktok #christmascookies #christmasbaking #emmassweets ♬ Swaggy Christmas – Official Sound Studio

2. Classic Christmas trees 

@southstreetcookies Christmas tree cookie #christmas #christmascookies #sugarcookies #royalicing #cookiedecorating #cookietok #bakertok #iowa #southstreetcookies ♬ Famous Christmas songs / Orchestra arrangement – MIZUSATO Masaki

3. Wreath cookies 

@thecookieboxclub Left the best wet on wet Christmas wreath cookie design for last. Merry Christmas to all! This one combines dots and V’s and reveals a whimsical design. Like all other designs, I used 10 second consistency royal icing for all the colors used in this cookie. Will you be trying any of the wreaths or wet on wet cookie designs I’ve shared? I’d love to see them, so please tag us! #sugarcookies #wetonwetcookies #decoratedcookies #decoratedsugarcookie #cookietutorial #royalicing #cookies #tiktokcookieschool #baking #baking #christmascookies #cookiedecorating ♬ Feliz Navidad – José Feliciano

4. Festive ornaments 

@designeatrepeat Reply to @elena.cunniff Easy Ornament Cookie #christmas #happyholidays #baking #christmasbaking #tiktokholidays #cakedecorating ♬ Christmas Bells – StudioKolomna

5. Mini Santa Clauses 

@soyummy Make a batch of these mini Santas #christmascookies ♬ Sleigh Bells (PhatCap! Trap Remix) – Ronettes

Also read: Tips for better baking 

Image: Pexels

The post 3 techniques to decorate your holiday cookies appeared first on MyKitchen.