Fantastic Find: Ateco Ruffle Tips


I love when "fun" meets up with "easy." And these ruffle tips are that perfect pairing. When I first got them, I couldn't think of a reason to use them....and after I tried them out....I couldn't stop wishing I had more reasons to use them!


The basic idea behind ruffle tips is that they are shaped all totally weird so that the icing is pushed in such a way that ruffles are automatically created as you squeeze the icing out of the piping bag. You know, because moving your hand up and down to make ruffles is SO last year.


I couldn't find a chart that shows what all of the ruffle tips look like, so I was really excited to try them out with some left over icing. The top line of ruffles is what each tip looks like if you just squeeze and move your had from left to right. The bottom line of ruffles is what each tip looks like when you move the piping tip up and down like you normally would to make ruffles. As you can see...there's not a lot of difference between the two! All you have to do is squeeze your piping bag and you get these automatic ruffles! And HOW COOL are those layers of ruffles??!! Tip #040 is my favorite. I just love the little ridge on the very bottom of the ruffles!

I'm not very good at *stopping* piping ruffles though, as you can see from the picture above. I've tried these a few times and can't quite figure out what I'm supposed to do when it comes to the end of the ruffle. Right now, I use a scribe tool to kind of round the edge...but if any of you know how you're supposed to stop -- tell me!

Because these tips create all that gorgeous texture, they should be used with a thick consistency of icing. So if you're using royal icing, make sure to add extra corn syrup to keep the icing from getting super hard and inedible. I think these tips were originally designed to be used with butter cream icing on cakes. Because of that, they are a little on the big side for cookies....which kind of limits your options for using them in designs. I would LOVE to see these made in smaller, more cookie-sized tips!!



As much fun as these tips are to use, how often do you pipe ruffles on cookies? I can pretty much only think of dresses or baby bedding. I tried it out on a ruffled variation of Sugarbelle's Bowing Ballerina cookie and LOVE LOVE the way it turned out! I also tried using tip #040 to pipe a skirt. It turned out looking almost exactly like a hula skirt. So even though I was using orange icing, I had to finish it out that way. (And before you ask -- my icing is super shiny because I piped these cookies 3 minutes before taking the picture! The icing isn't even close to dry yet.) (And please don't judge the weirdness that is my hula girl. Against all advice... I rushed art.)

You can get similar looks with other, smaller tips. I usually use a rose tip for much smaller and more simple ruffles. But if you want to get that layered look or taller ruffles...there really is no substitute for ruffle tips!! Unless of course you don't ever pipe ruffles.

Bottom line: I LOVE using these tips!!! I really wish they were more readily available so I could just impulse-purchase them at my favorite decorating store. You can get them for about $3-$5. For that price, I will definitely be buying a few more designs to try out!

Want to try them out yourself? Just click that Easy Entry button below before midnight on Friday, June 3, 2016 for your chance to win a 4-piece set of Ateco Ruffle Tips. (I hate that they call it a 4 piece set because you're really only getting THREE tips...and a coupler.)

a Rafflecopter giveaway
Have you tried ruffle tips? Do you love them or hate them? Which one is your favorite?

You can get the 4 piece Ateco Ruffle Tip Set HERE
Or grab just my favorite -- Tip #040 HERE
Or try this 7 piece set made by a different brand HERE.
Georganne
Georganne

This is a short biography of the post author and you can replace it with your own biography.