Are you fond of making cupcakes and want to learn how to decorate them? One way to decorate cupcakes is with a pastry bag, which is really useful to make different decorations depending on the nozzles you use. With the right nozzle and icing, you can make flowers, leaves, baskets, stars and a lot of other different shapes. You only need to be creative!
In this oneHOWTO article we'll explain what are the different types of piping nozzles for cupcake decoration that you can easily find in the market, as well as the shapes that they create.
Leaf nozzles
Leaf nozzles, as the name suggests, will serve to make different kinds of leaves. The nozzle will determine the shape and size of the leaf decorations, but you can also alter them by pressing the pastry bag more or less. Note that the smaller the opening of your leaf nozzle, the more notches you'll be able to create for your leaf.
How to use it
To use a leaf nozzle properly, hold the tip at a 45 degree angle and squeeze for a second to let the icing build up, and slowly release pressure as you pull the tip away. Always make sure the "v" shape opening is at the side.
Type of icing
The best types of frosting to make leaf decorations are those in pale yellow, although you can always dye the icing green with food coloring. We recommend white chocolate ganache and sharp lemon frosting.
Flower nozzles
You can use these flower nozzles, to decorate your cupcakes with pretty flowers of different widths and complexity. These nozzles are very useful because you can make flowers without having to go petal by petal. Note that there are closed and open versions of flower nozzles, meaning that the petals created can have more defined and thin tips when using the closed versions than with the open nozzle.
How to use it
To use a flower nozzle, it's best to create the shape on parchment paper and then add them to the cupcake to make a more defined and beautiful flower shape. Remember that the number of tips on the nozzle will be the number of petals your flower will have.
To create it, press the nozzle to the parchment paper and, while you squeeze the bag, release the pressure while turning clockwise and lifting the piping bag vertically.
Type of icing
To make flower cupcake decorations, we recommend pink or red icings. What about delicious strawberry frosting?
Open star nozzles
These open star nozzles are very useful for making flowers, borders, shells, etc. Depending on the pressure you put on the pastry bag and its position, you can make one shape or another. Look at the picture and see the endless possibilities you have with open star nozzles - you'll understand why they're among the most popular ones.
How to use it
The good thing about open star piping nozzles is that you can use them in many ways, as there are several techniques.
- The rosette technique: Believe it or not, it's really easy to make a rose shape. Start at the center of the cupcake by applying light pressure at a 90 degree angle and keep the same pressure while moving the tip in circles from the center to the outside.
- Mounting technique: The mounting technique is by far the easiest, and will consist of filling the surface of the cupcakes with star shaped dollops. Simply apply pressure at a 90 degree angle and move the tip up as fast as you can. Repeat this movement around the cupcake to fill the surface with small stars.
- Fluff frosting: If you want to create cupcake frosting with different ruffles using this nozzle, apply slight pressure on the center of the cupcake, while moving the tip once up, then down and up once more applying more pressure. Repeat while the frosting fills the top of the cupcake until the surface is completely covered. Remember not to move the tip to the sides and keep using up and down movements.
- Big ruffle technique: As if it were an ice cone, just apply pressure to create a dollow in he center and circle the dollop, mounting up the icing by applying slightly more pressure as you move forward.
Type of icing
Since open star nozzles are great to make many different shapes, we recommend learning how to decorate cupcakes using icing, buttercream, fondant or vegan icing.
Closed star nozzles
You can also use the closed stars nozzles to make many different, softer and rounder cupcake decorations. As always, depending on the pressure and the position your result will be different.
How to use it
As this is amazing to create borders we advise you to use this nozzle, we advise you to make spirals with them by holding the bag at a 45 degree angle, apply slight pressure and create tight circles while moving the bag in a straight line.
You can also create shells with these. Again, at a 45 degree angle, squeeze for three seconds keeping the tip still. Stop the pressure and repeat right bellow the first shell.
Type of icing
Apart from using this for icing, it's very simple to use with whipped cream too, so you can try this technique on cakes if you are planning to top it up with this delicious ingredient!
Round nozzles
Round nozzles are one of the simplest and widely used piping nozzles. They are mostly used to write letters or numbers on the cakes. These can also be used to make borders, lines, frames or vines. They're the pencils of cupcake decoration!
How to use it
There are hundreds of ways to use round nozzles, and each will depend on the width of the tip. However, if using it for cupcake decoration, you will usually use a wider nozzle.
Use at a 90 degree angle, starting at the far edge of the cupcake, apply pressure and work around it in circles, from the outside inwards. You can also try making small blobs to create circles to decorate the cupcake too if you prefer.
Petal nozzles
You can also make flowers with petal nozzles. With these nozzles you can design your own flowers and make as many petals as you want. This type of piping nozzle is a little bit more tricky to use, though at oneHOWTO we can give you some useful advice for perfect use.
How to use it
To create perfect ruffles, point the wider side of the petal nozzle closest to the cake, and the thinner part further away. This will allow you to create finer and more precise patterns.
It takes more work than with flower nozzles, but it's worth it!
Basket nozzles
These nozzles are ideal for different shapes; mostly, they are ideal for simulating woven baskets. With these nozzles you can get creative and come up with complex patterns and interlocking weaves.
How to use it
To create the basket weave effect, create a straight line at a 45 degree angle. Then, pipe short perpendicular lines that cross the long vertical line, make sure they are more or less the same length. Create another vertical line that goes just slightly over the horizontal lines. Repeat the horizontal piping, thus creating this basket like texture. it's easier than you might think!
Ruffle nozzles
Ruffle nozzles are great for borders, garlands, ribbons, scalloped edges, etc. They can help you give a special touch to your cupcakes!
Multi-hole nozzles
Finally, we present the types of multi-hole nozzles with which you can make parallel lines and sets of flowers or points. These nozzles are widely used to simulate grass or hair among advanced bakers and cake specialists.
If you can't find the piping nozzle you're looking for, you can also make your own piping nozzle at home.
Now you know the different type of piping nozzles you can start making your icing and decorate your cupcakes. However, you should know you can also use a piping bag without a nozzle. Once you have this covered, at oneHOWTO you can find all the information you'll need:
- How to make vanilla frosting
- How to make chocolate frosting from scratch
If you want to read similar articles to Different Types of Piping Nozzles for Cupcake Decoration, we recommend you visit our Recipes category.
- You will see in the supermarket that there are two types of nozzles to decorate cupcakes: metal and plastic ones. Metal have greater variety of styles and shapes and are more resistant. Plastic ones are perfect for thicker decorations.