I just love decorating cakes with a star tip! There’s something so satisfying about piping out all those little ridges.
While the piping possibilities are endless, sometimes you might need a little help to get your creative juices flowing. Don’t worry, I’ve got you! Here are four different ways you can decorate a cake using a star tip.
I used a #32 star tip to decorate these cakes, but note that they were very tiny cakes. If you’re planning to decorate a larger cake, you might want to use a larger tip and save yourself the hand cramps 🙂
Swiss meringue buttercream is one of my favorite frostings for piping, and it’s what I used for these cakes. However, you should be able to pipe these designs with any sturdy buttercream that you like.
Wandering Waves
This cake was created by simply piping small star dots in a wavy line pattern.
Pro tip: Whenever you’re piping star dots like this, you want to hold the tip in once place while you squeeze, then stop squeezing before you pull away. If you keep squeezing as you pull away, you’ll end up up with sort of pointy looking blobs instead of nice neat little stars.
I started in the middle with my darkest color to create the focal point. After that, it was easy to follow along that line with different colors until the whole cake was covered!
I did the crumb coat with plain vanilla buttercream, but you could also color the crumb coat to match whatever colors you’re going to pipe with. That way any spaces between the dots won’t be so noticeable.
Sensational Squiggles
Next up is this fun squiggly pattern. This is super quick and easy compared to the dots, and I think it ends up creating a really cute pattern. All you have to do is pipe different sized squiggles in different directions all around your cake.
Now the key to piping designs like this is to be confidently random. That might sound weird, but if you hesitate too much you’ll end up with shaky piping. And likewise, if you try to make everything perfectly even, any variations will be that much more noticeable. BUT if you embrace the random look it ends up looking much more intentional and perfectly imperfect.
So instead of getting caught up in the shape of each little squiggle, try to focus on getting a variety of angles piped and on keeping the colors balanced around the cake. Basically, keep your eye on the bigger picture of the design, be confident in your piping, and trust that everything is going to come out alright.
Multi-colored Rosettes
The next design idea I have for you is this multi colored rosette cake. This is another fairly easy way to cover a cake and also another great way to sort of embrace the random, imperfect look.
To pipe rosettes, hold your tip perpendicular to the surface you’re piping on. Start where you want the center of your rosette to be, then pipe with even pressure all the way around that center point. A little before you get to the end of the rosette, release pressure and continue the circular motion so that the tail tapers off. And that’s it for a rosette, super easy!
To get the random look on your cake, you again just want to make sure you balance the colors all the way around the cake and try to use a mix of different sized rosettes.
I also like to layer the rosettes a bit as well. Layering helps cover up any holes and also adds a lot of dimension, instead of having all the rosettes on the same level.
Star Crescent Top
Last but not least is this little crescent of stars. Stars piped like this look a little bit like flowers, which if you know me you know I love anything floral!
This design looks great on a smooth frosted cake, but it would also be great on a rustic or combed texture. You could even embellish it with sprinkles for a fancier look.
Need a refresher on how to use a star tip? Check out this post all about how to pipe with star tips.
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