Russian Piping Tips - Using them to Decorate Cakes, Cupcakes & More

If you have been reading the blog for any length of time you know that I do a fair amount of baking. Many of the treats I make end up going to meetings with the hubby. I recently made vanilla cupcakes and instead of just frosting them as I would normally I used something new I had purchased – Russian piping tips. I’ve used regular tips for years but when I saw these I knew I wanted to play. I finally bought myself a set and I used them for the first time and they are really very easy to use.

As you can see my first attempts came out pretty well. In all honesty I was very surprised at how easy the tips were to use and how pretty the cupcakes looked. I’m now looking forward to trying more complicated effects such as two tone flowers. I used a simple buttercream for these and I think I need to find another recipe for for that but time will tell. For now I will just show how I used the tips.

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What You Need to Use Russian Piping Tips

Obviously you need some things before you can use Russian piping tips prime among them erm, Russian piping tips! I mention in the video below that I will share the kit that I purchased but it seems that it is no longer available. I found one that is probably even better since it includes a basic piping set as well so if you don’t have one you will have the leaf tip as well as some writing tips as well.

It also includes a few ball tips. I haven’t played with the ball tip set that I bought but that is next on my list. This kit doesn’t have as many flower tips as I have but if you are just starting out that is not a big deal since it also offers other benefits.

If you want to add leaves to your flowers you will need a leaf tip with a coupler for making them. This can be found in any starter piping kit or you can find a leaf piping kit. You will also need pastry bags. Most people these days use disposable pastry bags but you can still find reusable pastry bags if you would like to use them instead.

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While not vital to the process, a small offset spatula is helpful.

How to Use Russian Piping Tips

The easiest way to is to just show you so I made a video. Please bear in mind that I am not the world’s best video maker and I had a wicked headache when I made this.

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I mention in the video that I will share the recipe for the buttercream that I used. It is included in the recipe for the vanilla cupcakes that I posted last week: buttercream recipe It is on the recipe widget at the bottom and can easily be printed.

Moving Forward

The next time I have to make a cake or cupcakes I hope to use the Russian ball piping tips and when I do I will most certainly share how that goes. From what I have seen on Instagram they seem to make a ruffle like result. It should be fun to play!