Improvise a Pastry Bag
Have something fun you want to write on that birthday cake? How about making cute little skull and crossbones on those sugar cookies? These pastry bags are a great solution!
Steps
- Even filling fresh strawberries with cream fresh before drizzling them with honey, a pastry bag is a must. But always having one isn't easy. As long as you have some parchment paper, and even some of those pesky tips, you too can decorate like a pro.
- Hold the paper triangle as shown, grasping the center of the long side between the thumb and forefinger of the left hand.
- With the right hand, roll the top corner down to the center of the triangle. Hold the paper in this position with the right hand.
- With the left hand, roll the bottom corner up to complete the cone.
- Adjust the cone so that the point is completely closed and the point is sharp. Fold down the loose edges of the open end of the cone so that it does not unroll.
- Fill the cone and fold the open end several times so that it is tightly closed. With scissors, cut off a very small piece of the tip of the cone. Hold the cone between the thumb and fingers as shown.
- Finished.
Tips
- The bigger the triangle the bigger the cone and vice versa.
- A zipper-style disposable plastic sandwich bag works great. The frosting can't easily slide out the side or back. You can just snip off a corner, or fit a standard pastry nozzle and tip to it. You can set it down to swap frostings without it coming apart. And you can store the contents in the refrigerator in it (close or cover the cut end first to avoid a plug).
- Pipe out a small line on some extra paper to work out any air bubbles.
- A chip clip or one of those black office folder clips makes keeping the bag shut and rolled tight while filling easy.
- Place the bag in a tall cup for filling so you won't have to hold it.
- A caulking-gun-like frosting gun or cookie press with adapter is stronger and more precise, if less smooth.
- Keep the roll tight and the hole small for fine details. Try a little snip first then you can make it bigger if needed.
Warnings
- Filling the bag loosely with any thing will result in lots of air bubbles and sloppy work and scribbled writing.
Things You'll Need
- 1 roll of parchment paper
- Scissors
- Piping tips and a coupler (optional)
- Something to fill the bag with and something to pipe on!
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Sources and Citations
- All pictures come from my photo shop lab.
