The Russian Tips

Hi all

Please don't get intimidated by the title. Its nothing. Its just the icing nozzle used in cake decorating and nothing more.

Why they call it Russian I have yet to find out.

So far I have not written about this hobby which I have neglected for some time. Yeah cake decorating which at one time I was so crazy about.

What rekindle my interest is this thing, the Russian icing tips.

Here they are.

Russian piping (icing) tips

Inserted into the piping bag

Its size is bigger than the usual icing tip.

The main difference is you can have an icing flower formed with just one squeeze to the icing bag.

Of course with the regular icing tip you also can make flower eg the rossette with just one squeeze but if you want to make flower like a real rose you got to pipe the petals one by one using the petal tip.

With the Russian tip, with one squeeze and stop and lift action you can get a whorl of petals. One complete flower.

The only thing is that the flower is quite small. But its still ok because when you put them in groups on the cake it will look very nice. If you mix the colours it will be more interesting and visually festive suitable for special occasion.

I got these tips just recently and have not tried using them yet. So now I am trying.

It was not as easy as I thought.

In the beginning it was like this ha ha. More like just blops of icing like in the picture below.

Sorry for the poor setting and exposure. It was late in the night and I was getting frustrated for not getting it right 😒

First trial - failed!

I had to adjust the consistency of the frosting.

On the next day I tried again using some left over merengue butter cream which was kept in the freezer. After thawing it and a quick whip below is what I got.

The rose is taking shape but of course it is not good enough

Below is the icing shape (the rossette) formed by the regular icing tip. See the difference?

Below is the 'real rose' piped petal by petal using ordinary icing nozzle

Piped petal by petal (old picture)

Another practice on the folowing day here is how it turned out.

Put one fondant bird there . . .

I think I am slowly getting it. Need more practice before my next baking project. This is really a messy job.

When I started out the color of the flower was supposed to be very light blue in the centre and dark blue on the peripheral. But half way all got mixed up. So now you see the flower is dull blue.

How will it look on a real cake? Will share with you in another entry.

Till next entry have a sweet day!

Bye . . .