Gilt Piping garnish.top

Equipment

The bench toolkit, and what you can leave out

Piping has a starter cost of about forty pounds and a comfortable cost of about eighty. Everything above that is convenience. This page lists what each tool is actually for, so you can decide whether the item you are about to buy solves a problem you have.

Bags: disposable over reusable

Start with 40 cm disposable bags. They are 12 microns thick, hold 300 g without splitting at the seam and cost a few pence each, which matters because a bag that has held deep red icing is never really clean again. Reusable coated-polyester bags are worth it if you pipe daily: they are 100 microns, hold their shape in the hand and last years, but they need washing in hot soapy water and drying open. Use 25 cm bags for detail work - fern leaflets, lambeth scrollwork, lettering - because a long bag swings on the forearm and makes small strokes uneven.

Couplers and the two-tip minimum

A standard coupler lets you change tips without re-bagging, which matters for any technique that alternates between a 104 and a 3 round. Two couplers is the practical minimum; three lets you keep a base, a gold and an ink bag live at once, which is exactly what a hydrangea cluster or a basketweave needs. Metal couplers grip better than plastic; the ring should be finger-tight, never forced, because over-tightening deforms thin petal blades.

Tips: six cover the whole site

Six tips cover every technique card here: a 1M open star, a 2D drop flower, a 21 star for borders, a 104 petal, a 3 round for lines and beads, and a 352 leaf. A 12 and a 67 are the next two worth adding - the 12 for graduated bead trails, the 67 for fern work and olive branches. Tips in the 100 to 130 range are petal tips and are numbered in the same sequence by Wilton and PME, so a Wilton 104 and a PME 104 pipe the same shape.

Turntable, nail and the small knives

A revolving turntable is not optional: every technique on this site assumes the work arrives in front of you rather than you reaching around it. A cast-iron or weighted ABS turntable is worth the money; a plastic one without a bearing wobbles at the exact moment you are piping a straight line. A 40 mm flower nail is needed for 104 roses and violets. For knives, one small offset palette knife and one straight spatula cover everything: the offset for lifting piped pieces, the straight for moving icing between bowls.

Cleaning, and the clogging rule

Rinse tips in warm water immediately after use - dried royal icing sets like plaster and will blunt a petal tip if you scrape it out with a pin. If a tip has clogged mid-session, soak it in warm water for two minutes, never push a pin through the opening: the blade deforms and the tip will pipe an uneven ribbon for the rest of its life. Wipe leaf tips from the wide end toward the V every third garland; pushing icing into the V is what actually causes clogging.

Cards that pair with this page

Cards that pair with this page

These are released cards, ready to pipe from.

French Swirl with Wilton 6B — piped lace medallion

French Swirl with Wilton 6B

Ten narrow teeth, a deep centre and the tall swirl that makes a cake look two tiers high.

Wilton 6B Medium Intermediate Rosettes
Classic Piped Rose with Wilton 104 — piped lace medallion

Classic Piped Rose with Wilton 104

The fourteen-petal rose that has been the standard since the 1950s, piped on a flower nail.

Wilton 104 Stiff Intermediate Sugar Flowers
Primrose with Wilton 104 — piped lace medallion

Primrose with Wilton 104

Five strokes, one flat flower - the fastest piped bloom that still looks like a real species.

Wilton 104 Medium Intermediate Sugar Flowers
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