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Garnishing with a paper piping bag

A home-made piping bag (see the diagram) is perfect for making fine filigree decorations because you can determine the size of the hole of the piping bag yourself – the smaller the hole, the finer the lines of icing or melted chocolate.

To make a paper piping bag, cut a square piece of baking parchment (about 24 x 24 cm/9½ x 9½ in) and fold diagonally to make two triangles . Now take the triangle and hold the middle of the long side with your left hand, then with your right hand fold the upper tip inwards onto the right-angled tip to make a cornet . With your left hand (which is now free), turn the bottom tip towards the two tips already placed on top of each other, take hold of them and pull the three tips together so that they are on top of each other and the cornet has a pointed end at the bottom . Now fold the three tips inwards, press down firmly , . and you’re ready!

Now fill the cornet almost half full with the icing or glaze, close it by folding down the opening several times and press firmly to secure. Fold the resulting corners towards the back. Now cut off a small piece of the point of the cornet . You can now pipe the icing or glaze through the opening you have just made and decorate the cake or flan. Instead of making the piping bag with baking parchment, you can use a small freezer bag. Twist the opening of the freezer bag to close it and cut off a small corner through which you pipe the icing or glaze.

Icing

Sift the icing (confectioners’) sugar and stir in enough water, tea, liqueur or juice, a little at a time, to make a thickish glaze. You can also stir some cocoa powder or instant coffee into the sifted icing sugar before stirring it into the liquid. You can colour the icing the colour of your choice by adding a few drops of food colouring to the finished icing. If the icing is made with hot liquid the icing will become very shiny and hold better. It is important to apply the icing immediately after you have made it because it begins to set very quickly and is then very difficult to apply.

Chocolate and couverture chocolate icing

Melting the chocolate or couverture chocolate

To ensure that the melted chocolate or couverture chocolate is beautifully shiny and that it remains easy to cut even when the chocolate coating has cooled and set, it must be melted very slowly. To do this, break or chop the chocolate into small pieces and melt two-thirds of it in a pan or bowl in a bain-marie over low heat, stirring all the time . Then take the con-tainer out of the bain-marie and stir in the rest of the chopped or broken up chocolate ; then continue stirring until all the pieces have melted . If the chopped chocolate added after removing the container does not melt properly, put it back in the bainmarie for about 3 seconds. Then remove it again and stir until all the pieces have melted.

The right temperature?

To check whether the melted chocolate will be easy to work with, there is an easy test: dip a corner of a pastry scraper into the melted chocolate, tap it a little and leave the chocolate to dry. Or put a few drops of melted chocolate on a piece of baking parchment, spread it a little and leave to set for 3–5 minutes. Do not stir at this moment, so as not to change the temperature. If the mixture does not set, it means that it is too hot; in this case put the pan briefly in cold water and give it a good stir. If you can see a grey film, the chocolate mixture is too cold; in this case put it back in the warm bain-marie for a few seconds and stir well.

To make chocolate curls and shavings

Melt the chocolate as described above and then pour it on a plate or cake decorating plate. Now “tap” the plate on the table so that the chocolate spreads. Then leave it to cool until it is almost set (but do not refrigerate).

You can make beautiful, large chocolate curls by holding a spatula at a very low angle to the plate and then scrape the chocolate with light, regular movements.

Important: the chocolate must not have set too hard or the curls will break and become crumbly. You can also make chocolate shavings by scraping a bar of chocolate with a potato peeler.

Again, make sure that the chocolate is not too cold or you will only get grated chocolate instead of chocolate shavings.

To make sure that the chocolate curls and shavings do not melt or break, do not use your fingers to move or position them: use a spatula or a wide knife.

To make chocolate glaze

To coat cakes and pastries with a chocolate glaze, coarsely chop the chocolate. Melt the pieces with a little cooking oil in a pan in a bainmarie over low heat, stirring all the time. You will get a beautifully shiny glaze which is easy to work with by adding about 1 teaspoon cooking oil per 100 g/3½ oz chocolate or about 25 g/1 oz coconut fat per 100 g/3½ oz couverture chocolate.

Take care: make absolutely certain that the chocolate and the couverture do not come into contact with water. Even small amounts of water will make them brittle so that they can no longer be used for decoration.

Piping bag:

Preparing and twisting it

First, select the right nozzle for the piping bag. The plain nozzle is, for example, intended for thin or thick dabs of cream. The star-shaped nozzle tends to be used for shortbread, or for cream or butter cream decorations and frostings. Then you are ready to start:

•Take the piping bag in your hand or place it in a mixing jug and fold over about 5 cm of the sides of the piping bag towards the outside.

•Only half-fill the piping bag with cream or butter cream. Fold the sides back up.

•Carefully push the filling towards the bottom of the piping bag so that the air can escape. To do this, gently twist the sides of the piping bag over the filling.

•To apply the decoration, hold the piping bag vertically with your right hand at the top. At the same time, carefully press the filling out, guiding the piping bag with your left hand – left-handed people should proceed the opposite way.

Make the cream rosettes last longer

When making the cake, bear in mind the timing, as cream decorations quickly lose their firmness and disintegrate into solid and fluid parts. If the cake is eaten soon after being made, piped cake toppings are ideal and very decorative. If, however, they still need to look attractive the next day, stir in some dissolved gelatine and put the cake in the fridge until required.

Patterns with star-shaped nozzles

S shape

Entwined ribbon

Line of rosettes

Ring and pattern with drop flower nozzle