How To Use Russian Piping Tips (+Video!)

Learn how to use Russian Flower Tips To Create Beautiful Cake and Cupcakes, then read this tutorial. I have got the tips you need to be successful in using Russian piping tips+ a video so you can see how to use them!

This post contains affiliate links. If you click on a link and make a purchase, I do make a small commission but it costs you nothing extra. You can read my full disclosure policy here. 

I still remember my first cupcake decorating class. I signed up on a whim because of all those Food Network Shows on cake decorating and cupcakes that were cropping up. I seriously couldn’t watch enough of Cupcake Wars.  These beautiful cupcakes and crazy good flavors they were cranking out made me want to dive in myself.

Now fast forward a decade or so, and I still can be found in the kitchen cranking out cupcake recipes. And apparently, that’s ok with you all as well. My cupcake recipes still are the most popular on this blog. I mean whether we’re talking the perfect vanilla cupcake or more creative crazy concoctions like these Lemon Meringue Pie Cupcakes and Cotton Candy Cupcakes. I (and you!) can’t get enough.

So when a reader asked me about using Russian Flower Piping Tips. I hadn’t given them a try, but I thought what a fun experiment to finally gives these tips that seem to be all the rage right now a try. So I bought this Russian Flower Tip Set and got to work making some beautiful buttercream flowers.

What Are Russian Piping Tips?

Ok, now you may be new to these tips. These tips come in different size sets- anywhere from 7 to the set I got with over 30 different tips!

Each tip is slightly different creating a different beautiful flower cupcake. These are very LARGE tips. Much larger than my typical piping tips I use for my cupcakes.

Where Do You Get Russian Flower Tips?

The tip set that I got came with these disposable large piping bags to use for them. If you buy a set that doesn’t have any bags included, I would highly recommend you use 18-inch decorating bags or larger. The tip will use up a good portion of your pastry bag leaving you not much room for frosting if you use a smaller bag. For this tutorial, I just simply used the bags they came with. The set I got also came with a leaf tip in the set, which is great! You need a leaf tip to make those beautiful leaves to fill in your flowers with.

Here is a picture of what came in this set that I purchased.

As you can see there were LOTS of tips to choose from. The set also came with a regular coupler, and a tri-coupler where you could put three pastry bags in (each a different color).

I chose just 6 to experiment with in this post, that I thought would create beautiful cupcakes. Each piping tip set on Amazon as far as I can tell comes with a different selection of tips, and number of tips.

These Russian tips when used correctly, create these beautiful buttercream flower cake or cupcakes like below. I mean um, LOVE right?

Tips On Using Russian Piping Tips 

• Frosting Consistency Is Key. I used my go to vanilla buttercream recipe with a bit more powdered sugar added to it (1/2 cup more) to help stiffen the mixture up. A stiff buttercream makes it easier when using these Russian piping tips.  An American buttercream is easy to whip up and you can adjust the stiffness, so it’s what I recommend! You could also try reducing the heavy cream in the recipe as well.  You want a stiff enough recipe that will hold up well. I wouldn’t recommend using Swiss meringue buttercream for this, as it might be too soft to create these cupcakes. 
• Practice each tip first. Each tip is different like I mentioned. Some I loved. Some, not so much. I would do a practice on a piece of parchment paper first, before you attack a cupcake with these tips to make sure you love the tip you are using. You can always scrape the frosting back into your bowl to re-use. Also some tips look better when you pipe them tall, some look better short. So practice a couple times first on parchment then try them on your cupcakes.
• Stick With One Color Buttercream To Start–  Now if you’re new to using these tips and piping buttercream in general you might want to stick to using just one color frosting. Master how to use them first, before you start getting creative with colors. Once you get the knack, it’s definitely fun to combine more than color frosting together.

To learn how to make two-tone frosting–> check out this post on how to make two tone swirled frosting with video!

For these cupcakes, I used a spatula to stripe one color in on the sides of the bag, and then filled in the bag with a second color.

• Keep your tip clean in between piping each flower–  I found that I needed to wipe the tip clean after every 2 flowers or so. If not, I found I ended up with a messy flower by Flower #3.
• Keep an off-set spatula close by. – If a flower doesn’t come out perfectly, use a spatula to carefully remove it and start over.
• Changing Your Tips: My set came with a coupler to change out my tips. I found they didn’t fit like I wanted and kept falling off. So my suggestion is make two bags. One with the tip. One with the frosting. Then place the frosting bag inside your tip bag, and just easily swap out the tips with the outside bag as you want. This was the easiest method for me!
• Practice Makes Perfect– These can be a bit tricky at first to use! My first cupcake was a total flop. And the more cupcakes I tried the better I got. But every so often, I would pipe a flower on and it would be a FAIL. So just remember these can be tricky at first. So don’t give up!

How To Use These Russian Piping Tips

1. Start by spreading a thin layer of buttercream on your cupcake first. This will help to adhere the flowers to the cupcake.
2. Hold your pastry bag straight up at 90 degree angle, and slightly above the surface of your cupcake.
3. Begin by squeezing out the buttercream, creating a base of the flower.
4. Once a base is established, then quickly pull straight up on the piping bag and release pressure.
5. Use a leaf tip to pipe small leaves in between the flowers for a more realistic look!

And here is a close-up of each buttercream flower cupcake I piped! This tip was probably my favorite. Might be because I thought it was the easiest to use. This piping tip worked well making short flowers.

This tip was a bit trickier to use, and the edges of the flowers sometimes drooped or caused these “tails”. Easily fixed by letting the buttercream dry a bit and then push up the flowers where needed.

This one made really pretty taller tulip flowers! One of my faves for sure.

This next three Russian tips made what looked like to me little roses. To me, these worked when piped a bit taller to really get the true “rose” effect, but short or tall would work I think.

To me, these worked when piped a bit taller to really get the true “rose” effect, but short or tall would work I think. 

To me, these worked when piped a bit taller to really get the true “rose” effect, but short or tall would work I think.

I hope I have inspired you to pick up a piping bag and try your hand at these Russian piping tips. They definitely take some practice, but don’t give up! Before you know it you will have beautiful buttercream flower cupcakes that no one will be able to believe you did yourself.

Happy baking!