Drop In & Decorate: Squeeze bottles: a great alternative for icing

Cookie love, too

"Thank you doesn't begin to say how we feel about the beautiful cookies we received today. They are a work of art and a special gift for the women of Abby's House. We will give them out tomorrow at our Mother's Day luncheon. We are so excited to have them as they will add that special touch to the tables and a festive feeling for the day." Abby's House, serving homeless and battered women in Worcester MA

May 14, 2008

Squeeze bottles: a great alternative for icing

Squeezebottles_2

I'm always looking for the next great cookie decorating idea to share, for ways to make hosting your own Drop In & Decorate party easier, faster, and more affordable.

At my most recent party, a Mother's Day/May Day cookie decorating afternoon, we tested some products that worked really well, and that we'll certainly be using next time.

For the icing, in addition to pastry bags, we tried squeeze bottles. Made by Wilton for decorating candy, the bottles come in a set of 18, though you can buy them in sets of 2 for $1.99 on Wilton's web site. (I purchased ours at Michael's, a chain craft store.)

The bottles are easy to wash and they're reusable, which is an advantage over the disposable clear pastry bags we've been using. The caps keep the icing from drying out. Because the bottles are translucent, you can see the icing color inside.

Icingbottles2

Many folks found the squeeze bottles easier to use; others preferred the pastry bags for the variety of sizes of tips, and greater control.

One downside is that the bottles hold less icing than the pastry bags. I'll look for bottles that are slightly taller, but not larger in diameter so they'll still be easy for hands of all sizes to grip.

Icingbottles

My husband Ted made the stand to hold the bottles upside down, which kept air bubbles from forming. He took a piece of scrap wood, drilled one-inch holes, and made the legs out of leftover parts from our printer's ink cartridges! The bottles could rest with the nozzles facing down, high enough off the table.

My recommendation: Try squeeze bottles for your icing.

Posted at 04:52 PM in Supplies and sources, Tips and techniques | Permalink

Comments

Ted your invention is sooo clever!
Lydia thanks for keeping me in the loop.

Posted by: Theresa Tally | May 19, 2008 at 10:39 PM

I am in love with that icing stand.

Posted by: Anna | October 15, 2008 at 09:54 PM

What a fantastic idea of your husbands! Could you please tell me what size bottles he made the stand for?
Mirella O'Connor

Posted by: Mirella | January 07, 2010 at 11:38 PM

Do you have the recipe for the icing you used? Did it dry fast? I'm having a bunch of 8 year old boys over to decorate cookies for their cub scout party and I've been having a hard time trying to find an easy way for them to decorate the cookies. Thanks for any tips!

Thanks!
Diana

Posted by: Diana Haigh | February 23, 2010 at 03:18 PM

Diana, the recipe is right up at the top of this page, under "Find it here".

Posted by: Lydia | February 23, 2010 at 03:22 PM

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