What do I need to start piping icing?

[nextphase]

Hi,

I can make cakes, and can do glacé or buttercream icing, but always fail spectacularly at piping.

Whether its buttercream, biscuit mix, whipped cream or mashed potato, it either comes out of the seam of the piping bag, or forces the nozzle off the bag.

So, can anyone suggest a basic set of bag and nozzles I'd need to to BASIC piping. I have limited artistic ability, so it would just be enhancing the finish from pallet knife to piped, rather than doing fancy stuff. Am I best with disposable ones?

Cheers

I have never tried disposable ones but if splitting the bag is a problem for you maybe best to avoid them.

I have a tala set. It was a present so not sure on price but its quite basic. Its strong material and comes with 6 nozzles which screw in to the bag, eliminating the nozzle flying off problem.

If you check amazon or lakeland Im sure I have seen the same tin there. Once you are more proficient you can add to your nozzle collection or go for something more expensive.

HTH

Sorry, its a cloth icing bag I have at the moment.
Have I just got a cheep one, meaning its leaked?

What make is it? Mine has a plastic lining and is cloth on the outside. I dont think I could break it if I tried!

What breaks the bag though? You could be overfilling or the icing could be too firm to come out of the nozzle. You shouldnt have to push hard but it shouldnt drip out. Sometimes getting the right consistency is tricky.

Im not very experienced though (more often than not my butter icing curdles ) so maybe someone else might know more!

Probably a tesco or asda cheepie!

Will have a look at lakeland, cheers

I use disposable piping bags, Saisburys ones are the best of the supermarket brands. I have never had one pop or split. As or the nozzle popping off you might do well to use a nozzle coupler. Your local cooking shop should sell one that fits most metal nozzles. If you are piping onto cupcakes the one nozzle that is brilliant is the 1M which can be used to pipe a rose type swirl or an traditional swirl.

If you buy a reusable piping bag make sure you buy one with a double sealed seam which should prevent it splitting.

I second the suggestion to use a coupler. I find it much easier to fill the bag and pipe when I use one. Over filling the bag was an issue for me too in the beginning.

I also had a cheapy tesco icing set when I couldn't get to my usual shop. I kept the nozzles and took great pleasure in throwing the crappy crappy bag in the bin! It leaked all down the stitching, I got covered! I usually use disposables as I don't like washing the bags our afterwards. They've not split on me yet.

I would suggest the lakeland set. Iirc it was about £10. Decent bag and lovely big nozzles.

I also use disposable bags. Much less time cleaning up after.

don't buy the lakeland silcone piping bag set, it is utter crap for anything stiffer than lightly whipped cream and it feels like a vile stretchy bouncy castle condom

their disposable bags are brilliant.....as is their customer service, as they sent me a massive box of the disposable bags after I reviewed moaned onsite about the giant condom.

I didn't mean the silicone one.

Mine is a cloth bag that came with 6 nozzles.

I also have a few wilton nozzles but they are not as big.

If you are splitting bags constantly the problem is not the bags - it's that you are overfilling with a piping medium that is too stiff and you are having to exert too much pressure to make if move through the nozzle. Try loosening up the consistency and you should see better results.

I use disposable plastic piping bags for anything that is difficult to wash off and have a couple of large fabric forcing bags for stuff like cream, buttercream etc