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Leaves · Family 67

Fern Fill with Wilton 67

The filler leaf that turns three piped flowers into a bouquet.

Ferns are the connective tissue of piped work. Two roses and a primrose on their own look like three flowers; the same three flowers with fern fronds between them look like a bouquet. The 67 is the small leaf tip, and it makes a fern by a rhythm - one long stroke, four short ones, one long - repeated along a curve.

Tip
Wilton 67
Icing stage
Medium peak
Difficulty
Beginner
Teeth
2
Symmetry
14×
Cure
10 hours
Finished size
100 mm
Released
15 October 2026

By The Sugar Bench · Released 15 October 2026

Method

4 steps, pressure stated at each one

Hand position and bag pressure are stated for every step, because that is where most failures happen.

Fern Fill with Wilton 67 — Step 1: Mix and bag two greens

Step 01 of 04

Mix and bag two greens

Mix 250 g to deep #1B1418 with two toothpick tips of AmeriColor Avocado and 250 g to a pale green with one toothpick tip of Avocado plus one of Antique Gold. Bag each in a 25 cm bag with a 67, filled 100 g at a time.

HandShort bags only - a 40 cm bag swings on the forearm and the leaflets come out at uneven angles.
Bag pressureNone.
Fern Fill with Wilton 67 — Step 2: Pipe the spine

Step 02 of 04

Pipe the spine

Hold the 67 with the V running along your direction of travel and pipe a 60 mm shallow curve, fading the pressure at the end so the frond tapers to a point. The spine should be 3 mm wide at the base and 1 mm at the tip.

HandV along the travel direction; rotate the turntable with your other hand rather than walking the bag in an arc.
Bag pressureMedium at the base fading steadily - a spine piped at constant pressure looks like a sausage.
Fern Fill with Wilton 67 — Step 3: Add the leaflets

Step 03 of 04

Add the leaflets

Working from the outside of the frond inward, pipe four leaflets on each side, 8 mm long, angled 45 degrees forward along the spine. Space them 10 mm apart. Alternate sides rather than doing one side then the other.

HandThe stroke for a leaflet is a small outward flick of the wrist; angle forward means toward the frond tip.
Bag pressureLight and quick - a slow leaflet stroke makes a blob rather than a leaf.
Fern Fill with Wilton 67 — Step 4: Build the arrangement

Step 04 of 04

Build the arrangement

Pipe five fronds for a 90 mm cluster: three behind the flowers from the dark bag, one on each side from the pale bag. No frond crosses a flower; the thick end of every frond points outward.

HandRotate the turntable to bring each position to you rather than reaching across the wet work.
Bag pressureMedium at the base, fading out before the frond tip so it merges into the cluster.

Scroll sideways for each step →

The 4-1 rhythm

A fern frond is a spine with leaflets. Pipe the spine as a 60 mm curve, then add four leaflets on each side, each 8 mm long and angled 45 degrees forward along the spine. The rhythm is 1 cm of spine, then two leaflets; a frond with leaflets every 4 mm looks like a caterpillar, and one with leaflets every 20 mm looks bare. Counting 4-1-4-1 out loud keeps the spacing even over a 60 mm stroke.

Medium peak and a smaller bag

Ferns are piped at medium peak because the leaflets are short and do not need to support themselves. Use a 25 cm bag rather than a 40 cm one: fern work is all small wrist movements, and a long bag drags on your forearm and makes the leaflets uneven. Fill only 100 g at a time.

Two greens, alternating fronds

Mix 250 g deep at #1B1418 with two toothpick tips of AmeriColor Avocado and 250 g pale with one toothpick tip of Avocado plus one of Sugarflair Antique Gold. Alternate the two bags frond by frond rather than mixing them in one bag. Alternating at the frond level creates rhythm; mixing in the bag creates a muddy average colour that reads as neither.

Where ferns go in an arrangement

Three rules: fronds never cross a flower, they pass behind it; the frond's thick end is always at the outside of the arrangement; and no frond is longer than the cluster it belongs to. A 90 mm cluster takes five fronds, three behind and one on each side.

Setting

Ten hours at 18 C. Ferns are thin enough that they crust in about two hours and are the safest element to pipe last on a cake that has to leave the kitchen the same day. They also hide mistakes better than anything else in the repertoire - a 60 mm frond over a wobbly shell border fixes it in four seconds.

Failures and fixes

Symptom Cause Fix
Frond looks like a caterpillar Leaflets piped every 4 mm along the spine. Ten millimetres between leaflets on each side; count the 4-1 rhythm out loud.
Leaflets all point the wrong way The V was angled backward along the spine instead of forward. Angle every leaflet 45 degrees toward the frond tip; check the first two before continuing.
Spine too thick at the tip Constant pressure along the whole stroke. Fade from medium to zero across the 60 mm; a frond whose tip is 3 mm wide was piped flat.

Before you bag up

  • Two greens bagged in 25 cm bags
  • Spine tapers 3 mm to 1 mm
  • Four leaflets per side, 10 mm apart
  • Leaflets angled 45 degrees toward the tip
  • No frond crosses a flower

This card describes a method, not a formulation tested for allergens, shelf life or food safety; the ingredients, hygiene and safety of anything you give to someone else are your responsibility. Nothing here is sponsored and there is no affiliation with any tip or ingredient manufacturer. See the terms page for the full note.

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