Wednesday, October 14, 2009

A great Tip and some Spider web cookies!

Rushed home to Whip up my royal icing for our Spider webs!

Have I told you lately how much I love my new mixer?

I really do!
The one thing I learned Best during that cake decorating class I took last summer was how much I dislike Cleaning up piping bags. I mean, for me, nothing Sucked the fun right out of cake and Cookie decorating exercises faster than having to stop to clean up piping bags. I decided I would get around this by buying Twenty piping bags, plus many duplicates of all the Tips I might need. But while I now have enough Piping bags to get me through any decorating project without having to stop and clean bags, it still didn't Solve the problem of having to clean them at all.

Then I stumbled on Disposable piping bags during my first visit to Cake Art in Georgia. Let me tell you... Disposable piping bags are cool! But they are also somewhat expensive too.
However, none of that matters any more! Now that I've discovered a trick!
Brace yourself, because this is pretty darn Fantastic! First, get out Cling wrap and place a piece down onto your work surface. Then, plop out as much icing as you need... Here, I'm doing the black icing needed to outline my webs!

Now, fold the Cling wrap over the frosting to cover it completely

Next, pick up your frosting pocket by the ends and Twist it closed
and tight by twirling it. Like you would to Jump rope with it. Be careful
not to lose an end as you twirl because this is basically a Frosting bomb!

I am demonstrating this for you using a clear Disposable bag so you
can see everything. Slip your frosting balloon into your piping bag
and gently pull one of the twisted ends through your coupler
until the balloon snuggles up to the coupler. Don't pull
too hard! Now grab your Kitchen scissors....

... and snip off the twist-end of your Frosting balloon in the
coupler. You'll leave the other end long. Hanging out of the bag

Fit your decorating Tip over the coupler and secure with the collar. Now twist your
piping bag downward to Load the frosting into the tip. And you're Ready to pipe!

When you're Finished, remove your decorating tip

Slide your frosting Balloon out of your piping
bag, which is... Say it with me now, CLEAN!

Throw the spent Cling wrap away. If there is any frosting
around your Coupler, don't worry, just thread a clean paper
towel through the coupler to wipe it away. I don't know about
about you, but this is a Tip that will keep me being a Happy
little cake and cookie decorator for the Rest of my life!

Okay... Now that I've solved the world's Most pressing problem,
let's try to create some Spider web cookies like Bridget's

As hard as I tried - and, I even made up a Template to follow, which didn't
help - I just could not get my spider webs to be as Symmetrical as I really
wanted them to be! Nevertheless, here we go, Flooding our cookies...

Flooded!

Kinda looks like a Spider web to me!

Let's try that again. With some Color this time!

Cool!

Not quite up to Bridget's aesthetic but
certainly something I can live with!

I just finished Cleaning up after myself, and look
who has just Jumped up into the sink for a sip!

Now all that's left is to add our Spiders...
But first, our Cookies must dry over night!

All in all, despite the fact that I simply could not duplicate Bridget's most
Boo-tiful spider webs, I'm not at all disappointed with my own results!

Come on, Bing... Let's go Relax a little. We can
pipe Spiders onto their webs tomorrow!

3 comments:

  1. They ARE Boo-tiful!!! My webs are never symmetrical, either and it really bugs me until I get them flooded.

    Your tip...it might just have changed my life!!! ;) Can't wait to try that.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Your cookies turned out just as boo-tiful as Bridget's did. My favorite has to be the purply one though.

    I'm so incredibly jealous of your mixer. I want one so badly. I have one that works fine but the candy apple red needs me to own it!

    Great tip for keeping the pastry bags clean. I use the disposable ones too and get them from Michael's with a 40% off coupon so I don't have to wash them. What I hate most is waashing the tips! Got any helpful tips for that?

    Keep up the great work!

    Monica

    ReplyDelete
  3. OMG!!!!!!
    That tip you gave with the icing is to die for!!!!
    And the spider webs...
    well...just so perfect!
    And HELLO there Mr. Bing! xxooxx

    ReplyDelete

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