Tool Time Basics - Part 1

You can either purchase metal or plastic tips - it's a personal preference. Both will pipe clean, sharp designs. Metal tips can bend out of shape so sometimes its needed to restore the bent tips. Wilton makes a "Tip Saver" that can help you with this as well as opening clogged tips. Whether you use plastic or metal it's a good idea to use a tip brush for cleaning. Keep your tips organized in a tip case so that they are handy at a moment's notice.

Along with your tips you will need Couplers which make it easy to change decorating tips on the same icing bag. The Tip Coupler base goes inside the bag before it is filled with frosting. Then the Decorating Tip is placed over the base that is extended from the icing bag. Twist the Coupler Ring over the tip so that it can be locked into place.

Cake Decorating Bags come in three different types: "Feather Weight" which are flexible polyurethane coated polyester; "Sure Grip" which are plastic lined canvas; Disposable Bags made of plastic and Parchment Paper which you can make yourself. The "Feather Weight" and "Sure Grip" bags can be washed and used over and over.

Other indispensable tools to have are Icing Spatulas, which are essential for icing the cake, positioning flowers and filling bags. For starters an 8" and a 15" icing spatula will be adequate. I prefer a straight blade to an angled one but again this is personal preference. To help with your icing flowers you may want to check into a Flower Nail and Flower Lifter.

Turntables can definitely make things easier for you especially if you do a lot of decorating. Last but not least, you need icing colors and of course icing. Get basic colors to start with and remember you can always experiment and make new colors. I'll cover how to mix colors in a future article.

Invest in yourself and get the most out of your decorating skills by having the right tools for the job. Come back next week when Tool Time Basics Part 2 continues.

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