If you have ever been mesmerized by a royal icing cookie decorating video, you may notice the plastic bags they use. You may also wonder how many icing tips they have on hand, and other small details. When I started fiddling around with cookie decorating, I bought a bunch of Wilton bags made expressly for this purpose. After a decorating session I wondered if it was worth all of the trash I created with the plastic decorating bags.
In my quest to find something better, I tried making parchment paper pastry cones you can roll yourself at home. They worked okay but were kind of small and sometimes I ended up with icing everywhere. The only pro of these I found was not needing to use a tip, but then you had to rely on your sight to cut the exact right size hole for the icing to come out at a good rate of speed.
Then I ordered a set of four silicone piping bags. It changed my whole icing game. Keep in mind, I am still a novice home icer. I am still learning about royal icing best practices, and my hands aren't as steady as the professionals. But thanks to watching icing videos like on Hayley Cakes' Instagram, I feel like I am getting better with each new attempt. And now, with the right equipment, I definitely will be icing more cookies! My video skills may need some improvement too, but that's a problem for another day.
These bags, plus the right couplers (the plastic parts), and the right sized metal tips, gave me a perfect and complete set of icing bags so I could ice cookies without icing gooshing out from the outer edge of the tip, or the top of the bag. Let's go over each part in detail.
The Icing Bags
The silicone bags are made of food grade silicone and are thick enough to not feel flimsy, but are not so thick they feel heavy or unwieldy to use. You can cut through them, but you probably couldn't just start a rip in one without the help of scissors or a knife.
This particular set comes with a four different sizes, which I like. When icing cookies, you usually have a color you need to use more of, and a different color or two that you need less of for detail work. The smaller ones are perfect for the detail work, while the larger ones handle the bigger masses of icing. The larger ones are also great for when you are piping larger, fluffier masses like whipped cream, macarons, or deviled eggs.
When it's time to wash them, rinse out most of the leftover stuff on the inside before it crusts up. Hot water washes away most of the sticky stuff. Then you can go in with a soapy sponge to wash the rest away. I really recommend not leaving food to crust up in these, but if you do, you can turn it inside out to get the crusty bits from the pointy end where a sponge won't reach. I did find the red icing lightly stained the inside of one of the bags, but I don't think it will affect future icing colors. Black, dark purple, and brown food colored icing will probably stain the inside of the bags too.
You will need to use scissors to snip the tips to the right length so your coupler and tips fit on snugly. Snip small bits at a time, you can always snip more, but you can't unsnip!
So far I have used these for icing cookies, filling deviled eggs, filling cream horns with whipped cream, and for making macarons. I've piped the dough, and the filling onto the finished cookies. Each experience has been extremely easy. My only flub was with the first use and not realizing the top wouldn't stay open on it's own. Use someone else's hands or a wide mouth cup to help with this. Fold up the bottom so the filling doesn't come flowing out of the tip while you're filling the bags.
The Couplers + and the Tips
The standard couplers do not work with all of the metal tips. I don't have a complete tip set, so I am not sure how far up they go. The standard couplers work on round #3 and round #4, which I have. They do not work on 1M, a larger open star tip, that one and others require a large coupler. So if you're in store, try the pieces out, or keep this in mind if you're ordering online.
You do not necessarily NEED a coupler for the larger tips. I used the 1M star tip to pipe deviled egg filling, and whipped cream on separate occasions. I just dropped the tip into the bag and had no problems.
Here's a video of me assembling my coupler and tip onto a bag. Keep in mind I pre-snipped the end to fit correctly before this video was done.
As my icing needs and my skills progress, I am going to get more tips. I got more round #3 tips, as I've had the best consistent luck doing cookie icing with those. Consistency is key when it comes to icing cookies, pun intended. I'll get a round #1 and #2 tip for smaller writing on cookies like the ones below.
Other Tips I've Learned
Using a clothespin to keep the wide end closed is ideal if you need to take a break or to pick up another color.
And finally, I don't think 1M is the best choice for deviled eggs. Too ruffly! But still, piping deviled egg filling beats using a spoon to scoop it in any day!