Keeping your piping bag steady while decorating cookies can take some time to master. While practice and patience are important tools to becoming an expert decorator, these 5 tips will help get you on your way to perfect piping.

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1. Don’t Overfill Your Piping Bag

If your decorating bag is filled to the top, it will be very difficult to control the flow of icing. I keep my bags less than halfway full when decorating cookies. Not only does this help with steady piping, but it also keeps things neat and clean as you work. There’s nothing worse than icing leaking out of the back of your bag, dripping all over the table, and potentially ruining your freshly iced cookies! Yes, you will need to refill your bag more often, but it’s worth the trouble. 

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2. Do The Twist

Twisting the piping bag where it rests between your thumb and forefinger will help put pressure on the icing so that you don’t have to squeeze so hard. This is especially helpful when working with stiff consistency royal icing (for information on achieving the right icing consistency for your cookie decorating project, read this post).

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3. Less Is More

Once your piping bag is filled and twisted, make sure that you’re only holding a handful of icing before you start decorating. Squeezing the icing from halfway down rather than trying to squeeze from the top will make things much easier on your hand. The bag tie on the end will hold the extra icing in place. Keep in mind though, that if you don’t have that twist in the bag mentioned in tip 2 above, it will be nearly impossible to squeeze the icing from this position.

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4. Get A Grip

Place one or two fingers from your other hand on the bag to keep your piping hand steady. For more support, wrap your thumb around your wrist. Also, make sure your forearm is resting on the edge of your work table.

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5. Consistency Is Key

Having the right icing consistency for your project is crucial! If your icing is too thin, your perfectly piped details will become an unrecognizable blob. Read this post to learn about how to achieve the royal right icing consistency for your project. 

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You can find more tips and tricks for perfect piping in my online cookie decorating class. Click here for 50% off enrollment! Have any tips you’d like to share? Let me know in the comments!–

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