Russian Tips What's The Big Deal

Mention Russian tips and any home baker will gush over them. These giant thimble like tips supposedly pump out amazing roses and tulips. I thought I'd give it a try with some leftover icing from the lamb experiment.

As you can see I did use the tips for the flowers on the Bertos' family's lamb's neck.

I had icing left over in the freezer.

I had researched and found out that adding cornstarch makes for a stiffer,  more malleable icing.

I added half a teaspoon of the cornstarch and a scant teaspoon of almond milk.
Then it was filling the Wilton icing bags with the tips and icing.

You can see how big they are, being doubled in size of the average nozzle.

I tried different nozzles with the icing. Some worked , some didn't.i

That means adding more cornstarch which I don't recommend. Cornstarch gives the icing a pasty feel on the tongue. (Keep in mind confectioner's sugar already has cornstarch in it to prevent lumping and clumping)

These petals were formed after more cornstarch was added to the icing.

One here came out perfect, then the icing got too soft as you can see.It became squooshy

Here again, you can see what works and what doesn't. The more solid ones have more definition. This is odd because it's all the same icing.

I don't know how other icers get the perfect garden of buttercream flowers. To be honest those flowers look like they're made from marzipan and not icing - which is what I've suspected they are.

How else would they one -have vibrant color and two - clean , defined lines. Buttercream does not produce  those results A thicker paste  made of ground almonds -would.

I'm not going to give on Russian tips. I may do an experiment with marizpan just to prove my point. I may try the buttercream icing again, with a different recipe that will give me perfect bouquets.