Basic Decorating Techniques
Getting Started with Stars |
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Watch videos of this technique: (Free Windows Media Play Required) |
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The star creates the most celebrated, yet easily accomplished decorations! Puffy rosettes, majestic stars... scrolls... swirls... garlands... shells... fleur-de-lis and more. Even some of the prettiest flowers around are made with one quick squeeze!
The serrated edges of the star tip make ridges in the icing as you squeeze it out. The angle at which you hold your icing bag and the way you move it determines the many different decorations you can make. Today, you'll learn three essential decorations with your star tip.
Getting Ready
Set up your practice board.
Insert a coupler base in your Featherweight bag and lock star tip 16 onto it with your coupler ring.
Fill bag half full with medium consistency Buttercream Icing for practice.
Tip: 16
Icing: medium consistency
Positions:
- Bag: 90° angle (straight up)
- Tip: 1/4 in. above surface
Sequence:
1. Squeeze firmly.
2. Stop squeezing, lift tip away.
Hold decorating bag straight up; the tip should be between 1/8 and 1/4 in. above surface, as shown. Squeeze bag to form star, stop pressure and pull tip straight up and away. Increase or decrease pressure to change star size.
Stars will be neatly formed only if you stop squeezing before you pull tip away. See what happens if you forget and continue to squeeze as you lift the bag (A), or if the tip is not kept straight up (B).
Try This: Pipe a series of stars all the same–in height and width.
Star Border
Star Border is a line of stars used to edge a cake or outline an area on the cake surface. Make the stars as uniform as possible, and place them close enough together so there are no gaps between.
Star Fill-in
Star Fill-in is a method of covering a section or the entire surface of the cake with stars. Pipe the stars evenly and close together, adjusting the tip position slightly each time so that the points of the stars interlock and cover the entire area without any gaps.
Triple Star Tip
Triple Star Tip pipes three stars close together at once. Stars are equal in size to tip 17. The Triple Star Tip covers large areas of cake quickly and easily. As you pipe stars, turn tip to interlock.
