Great British Baking Show Piping Nozzles and Bags

When it comes to decorating cake, and showcasing their skills, the bakers end up piping beautiful works atop their cakes. In order to do so The Great British baking Show provides De Buyer Piping Nozzles and Bags (Amazon - UK).

The stainless steel nozzles are wonderfully shaped and come in a fantastic assortment of different tips for some amazing piping patterns. De buyer released a fairly comprehensive catalogue of their goods, included in that is their nozzles and bags. I've linked a download to the nozzle part of the catalogue in pdf form for those who are curious. It is worth a look!

The De Buyer nozzles are listed by their product ID, which is 4 numbers and then a size code. For example 2111.15N is a round nozzle that is 15 millimeters in diameter, while 2118.01 is a crazy multi-pointed piping nozzle. The PDF shows all the crazy patterns they make and there are some really fun ones!

Because the nozzles are stainless steel they are fairly robust and easy to maintain. Dishwasher safe? Yes please. Being that they are made by De Buyer their construction quality is stellar. Which means, instead of wonky circles and bent tips, everything is symmetrical and shaped correctly. A lot of cheaper nozzles are just misshapen to an annoying extent.

The Great British Baking Show piping bags are De Buyer blue polyethylene 1.7 liter piping bags (Amazon - UK). They come in rolls of 100, are 90 microns thick, and have reinforced edges.

Let's break that down. They're blue... and that makes them a bit nicer to present in the tent. Easy. The 90 microns means they're fairly thick. Like much thicker than putting your frosting into a ziploc bag and cutting the corner off. Additionally they have reinforced edges. This means you can give them a good squeeze before they explode, which, I think, we've only seen 2 times on the show.

De Buyer makes some additional piping bags that come in packs of 100 or rolls. They're the same thickness with reinforced edges, however, they're either clear or have the De Buyer logo on them (Amazon - UK). Which in all honesty will work great in your kitchen.

If you're looking for something more permanent they also make cotton piping bags that are lined. These will last you a while, but in all honesty the ease of the plastic ones makes them an obvious go-to.

For what ever reason it seems like getting your hands on the De Buyer piping bags and nozzles may be a little difficult. They are in and out of stock on Amazon and the collection of nozzle types seems very random. If you look at the PDF you can probably google the individual nozzles you want and find them at random retailers online. That'd be my best guess.

Wilton - yes of the cake tin fame, also makes piping equipment, and even has a piping and cake decorating techniques section of their website! Its actually pretty great!

Because they're Wilton and fairly reputable I'd be happy going with their piping equipment. Their tips are stainless steel and their piping bags seem to get good reviews. Unfortunately they don't advertise the thickness or the reinforced edges, so it makes me skeptical of the thickness and edge quality. If you've got it flaunt it!

Additionally the Wilton nozzles seem to be easy to come by on Amazon. They have 4.8 stars and thousands of ratings. Depending on how far down the piping rabbit hole you want to go they have sets at various price points. The first is the 'let's give this a shot' 9 piece set (Amazon - UK) which clocks in around $15. While their 'all in' 55 piece set (Amazon - UK) tips the scales at roughly $35 (on sale or $60 regularly). This is far cheaper than the De Buyer nozzles which are $10 to $15 per nozzle!