Filling a Pastry Bag - Simplified!

Okay, so filling a pastry bag can be a pain in the backside, admit it! It is sometimes such a pain that you think it is easier to just take out a spreading knife and put a layer of frosting on your cakes, cookies, etc. But, let's face it, that is far more time consuming, not as pretty and you cannot fill your sweet treats with oo-y gooey goodness. Here is a very simple way to make that happen and then I will share a recipe idea for you.

Filling a pastry bag

Start with really creamy frosting. It is so much easier if your frosting is the perfect consistency. What you see here is a caramel - cream cheese frosting.

Next prepare your pastry bag. The disposable kind are easiest. I like using the larger #5 Plain Pastry point, or the Large star pattern.

(Make sure your pastry bag is opened.)

Next step is to take a large glass. The taller the better.

place the bag, point down into the glass. Next fold the edges over the glass as pictured.

So you can see you now have a wide opening to carefully place your frosting into the pastry bag.

From here it gets really easy. You want to be certain to apply pressure on the bag above the frosting line. From there you can simply insert the tip down into the cupcake and begin to fill the cupcake and slowly bring the tip out and then create a swirl.

I frosted 24 cupcakes in less than 5 minutes once I had my bag filled. I then proceeded to decorate my bundt cake with flavorful rosettes in place of either drizzle or all over frosting.

The recipe:
Pumpkin Spice cupcake mix and an Caramel Apple Spice cupcake mix from Aldi's.Each box makes 12 cupcakes.
Because I wanted to make a large batch I combined the two boxes, added a small grated zucchini and a medium apple - grated. (it makes for a nutritious, moist addition) To add a little additional sweetness I also added some chocolate chips to the mix. Mini-morsels are the best.

The frosting calls for butter and water, but to lessen the sweetness a little I added 4 ounces of cream cheese.

I had enough for 24 cupcakes and for a bundt cake, albeit it more along the thickness of a tart. The rest is history! I brought them in and shared them with my first period students. Success!