The Simple, No-Tool Hack To Tie Piping Bags In Seconds

Piping bags can be an absolute pain. You try and scoop your vanilla buttercream frosting in with a spoon, knife, or spatula and end up getting the frosting all over your hands, the countertop, and the floor. Or you get stuck and end up either piping a nice pattern on your hands or the tip of the bag breaks and your icing cascades out all over your cupcakes. When you try and tie the top of the piping bag, either with a good twist or by tying a knot at the top (which isn't easy because you don't have much plastic to work with), it doesn't hold. Add to that the air bubbles that splotch their way through your icing, and those perfectly frosted cupcakes seem like a distant dream.

We've been there. Luckily, where there's a problem, there's a solution, so we set out to find it. Boy, did we find the coolest, most useful hack shared by @stevemotocooks. The best part? You don't need fancy tools to do it. All it involves is a cup, a scraper or flat-edged knife, and a bit of swinging action from you. Tie a knot, and you'll have a perfectly filled piping bag with no air bubbles, no escape artist tricks out from the top or a tip that splits.

Insert your empty piping bag into a medium-to-large sized cup and fold a good portion of the piping bag over the edges of the cup. This will help keep icing away from the tippy-top edges of your piping bag. Spoon your icing in, then ease the edges of your piping bag off the edge of the cup and bring them together to tightly close the top. Now, those wrists of yours will step into action. Holding the top of the bag tightly closed, swing the bag around a good couple of times so that the momentum drags the icing deeper into the front half of the bag, and simultaneously pushes out any air bubbles.

Pop your piping bag onto a flat surface and spread the top of the bag open again so it's lying flush on the surface. Using a kitchen scraper or a longish flat-edged knife, push the icing down deeply into the front of the bag. Then, using a pair of scissors, cut a straight line down the middle of the bag, from the top to a little above the icing level. Gather the two edges in each hand, then swing the bag around in between the two ties to twist the edges firmly closed. Finally, tie these two ends together like you would tie a knot in your shoelaces. Snip off the edges, and you're good to go.