Icing Pods - Tutorial

I would love to share tips, tricks and videos with you all. In case you'd ever like to try something yourself! For cake and cupcake decorating - for years now, I have been using disposable icing bags. It is just soooo awful to wash buttercream out of the pastry bags - disposable is the thing that made it easy for me, instead of dreading it, and leaving the bags in my sink for a week. Or longer.

Then I started decorating cookies about 2 months ago. And with cookies, you use colour after colour, with different consistencies...all requiring a new bag. I could see how this was going to pricey (icing bags are not the cheapest thing in the world), and yet still, I didn't want to wash those bags!

Enter: The Icing Pod. This idea is sheer brilliance, and I did not come up with it on my own. I saw something on youtube initially, and then notice other cookie decorators doing this. So it's not original to me, but it's awesome, and I'm going to give you a how to - pictorial style. You will be able to keep your disposable bags - FOREVER!

This is an icing pod, of buttercream

Alright. Who can sympathize with me. Buttercream, icing bag, spatula, fill it - and it's always "gooey" up at the top, it's nearly impossible to fill the thing cleanly. Your hands are sticky before you really even start, and that has always bugged me. Heaven forbid you need a refill. Try to open that bag and add more to it. It really is not only difficult, but gross.

TO MAKE AN ICING POD: You will need -

Glad Press and Seal. Regular plastic/saran wrap will work in a pinch, however, especially if working with a thinner royal icing, you may get a bit of leaking. Press and seal won't leak on you! It is more pricey that regular wrap, but if you save it for icing purposes only, it'll last a loooong time, and is way cheaper than replacing icing bags

You will need -

Either a disposable icing bag, or a "real" one (you'll never have to wash them!), and a coupling. I've been using this particular bag since March!!

You will need -

A bag tie. You can use either an official icing one (purple thingy), or a small chip clip. I guess even a rubber band would work, but would not be as quick to attach.

HOW TO:

Tear off a portion of Press and Seal wrap. There is a "sticky" side to this wrap, have that facing UP, so it's not touching your counter, but will touch the icing. (If using regular wrap - there is no "right" side:-)

Scrape your prepared icing from the bowl into the center of the wrap

Fold the wrap up, on the diamond/triangle, and just roll it up until you hit the icing.

Then take the ends, and twist 'em up!

Pods at this stage are "air tight", so you can mix and make your royal icing in advance, and it will not get hard as you wait to use it. For buttercream, it just keeps it fresh in there, and ready for use when you need it!

Insert the pod into the bag, pull the long end all the way through the coupling until the icing is right there.

Apply your bag tie to the top (attaching the other long pod end to the icing bag - no leaking), and then snip off the tip

Attach your icing tip, and decorate!

When you are done, take off the bag tie, and pull out the pod (throw out if empty, save if not), and that's it! Put a new pod into the bag and keep going! You can see a little red is on the coupling, you don't need to wipe that off, it won't interfere with the next colour (sometimes it will get on the coupling, not the bag)

When you're done, stick the end under hot water for just a second, and it will rinse out any "leaky" colour on the coupling. Requires only hot water. No soap, no scrubbing, no soaking. EASY! (couplings can also be removed and put in dishwasher, if you rather, but the bag won't have any icing on it at all)

Keep your bags forever, and have almost ZERO clean up (huge bonus!). Annnnnd, it's a really quick, easy, and clean way to fill those bags. I think it's a win-win-win....win. I'm winning all over the place here;-)