Wine Article

I remember my first experience to really good (handy) cake decorating supplies was when I was a kid and at that time used to enjoy watching my grandmother baking and decorating. My grandmother would bake as well as cool a set of cakes
ice the layers and the cake in completion
subsequently – it was time for the greatest delight for me – when she would reach out to a special cabinet and take out cake decorating supplies in a package that looked like a gift box: the cake decorating supplies were kept stored in parts
each part fitting into its own cardboard cutout form. One by one Gram would slowly pull out the metal barrel
the plunger
the washer
and one or more of the tips…these tips were used to make leaves
or flowers
or perhaps to do tubing
to set stars.

Gram would put together the pieces and spoon one color frosting at a time into the cool metal tube
screw back on the plunger
and begin to work on decorating
which at times would take hours that were probably arduous
despite the fact that she never expressed a single complaint and neither did I move
fascinated as I was by the process
till she was done completely. Years later
when I had my own home
my grandmother had sent me a set of cake decorating supplies that were similar to her set. At times I practiced
and found these decorators to be incredible things of beauty - in form and function (and durability).

Though at some point later
I lost or loaned and never got back my cake decorating supplies
and changed them with the ultra-professional frosting bags and decorating tips
which were just as lovely (though if you have hot hands
the canvas bags transfer the heat—faster than it would with the metal set--to the frosting and it will puddle
so hold the bag by the top where you have twisted or folded it).

Last Christmas
I wanted to give a friend who had just gotten into gourmet baking a set of those cake decorating supplies of yore. Since I didn’t find the time to go online
I found
rather stupidly
a discounted cake decorator at a local department store. Actually the thing doesn’t stay closed (at the plunger and cap)
and it is plastic and stays greasy after washing. Ugh. Despite the fact twenty years ago I would have had an excuse
however today
I should know better…and use a site like eBay
where we not only find cake decorating supplies but those of the quality of the originals: A good tip is to either look for the brand name Wilton or use keywords like "vintage" or "original" or "aluminum"…for the kind of cake-decorating supplies Gram had.