This article was originally published in 2012 and refers to products which may no longer be available to buy.
Lakeland duo colour icing bag
The two tone effect you see in the buttercream on orange/black Halloween cupcakes below was created using this duo icing bag from Lakeland. The coupler covers two semi circular vents pushed into special split compartment bags.
Assembly is fiddly but the results rewarding. There are half a dozen different nozzles to pipe swags, stars etc. My main problem was that it was difficult to get both colours to appear at the other end at once. You are better off filling each side one spoon at a time rather than doing one colour then the other. Definitely do not over fill it – I got in a mess. You can get a similar effect by streaking the inside of your piping bag with food colouring.
I have created a full set of Halloween cupcakes for BabyCentre this week – there were 7-8 designs in this selection so do hop through and see the others in the new fangled slideshow thingy there.
With thanks to Lakeland for the sample icing bag received at their Christmas press show.
The piping bag looks good as it hasn’t allowed the two colours to become mixed, but remain two distinct colours. Good tips on how to fill it, thanks Sarah.
Thanks – I hadn’t thought of that aspect but yes, having a barrier up the middle of the bag stops the colours merging into each other.
these are so pretty! and I love the colours you chose!
Interesting review – your cupcake frosting does look good. I was wondering if this system would make it easier to get both colours to appear at the same time, but apparently not! For those without these bags, it’s possible to do the same thing using two piping bags with a colour in each and then both into a third – the third contains the nozzle. I’ve even done this for three colours very successfully. You don’t have the problem of having to fill the bags carefully either.
I thought the bags were a bit useless! Hard to fill and hard to pipe decent swirls, but that could have been because of the icing nozzle. Maybe it was me!