I have an order for 260 cupcakes for tomorrow. I'm not worried about baking or transporting them. But I'm suddenly worried about frosting them. Filling a 16" pastry bag enough times to frost all these will take forever! Won't it?

I'm sort of locked into using an M1 tip.

Does anyone have any tips? Has anyone tried using the giant ZipLoc bags as a giant pastry bag? If so - was the bag manageable? Or did you regret the decision?

I'll be using Cream Cheese frosting.

TIA

Billy

One Cupcake at a time!!! lol!

http://cakecentral.com/cake-decorating-ftopict-588591.html

You could use this no-mess technique. I don't see why you couldn't do it with ziplock bags instead of wrap if you wanted. Make up a bunch of tubes in advance, then just slip them in the piping bag and go!

It will go much faster than you think using the M1 and piping bag. I would stick with the bag and not worry about using a giant Ziploc. Depending on how large you are thinking of using, I would think control could be an issue. Good luck!

I saw a suggestion once to place all your cc in your boxes/carriers, then frost them. Only one chance then to stick your fingers in the icing- when removing them from the box.

i vote plug method w/ gallon ziplock bags. they have to be thin bags though, not the freezer kind ... usually labeled "Storage".

I made 200 cupcakes for my wedding and I just filled plenty of bags with different colors and just went at it.

I would also suggest sticking to the normal bag with 1M swirl or rose, as said its actually faster than you think!
The tube filling is also a good idea but IMO I think the bag can hold way more than a tube, if you over fill the tube it will burst inside the bag... belive me i tried

I always use the tube method for icing cupcakes. I use my commercial 18-inch wide plastic wrap, tho the regular size can also be used sideways.

I just make up a boatload of tubes in advance and plop a new one in the bag as needed.

Just helped frost 3,000 cupcakes yesterday ( There were 8 of us). If your bag is too big and full you will have problems getting a nice finish and control I started with big filled bags and one lady told me only fill to half... she was right. I say get a bunch of bags filled with frosting then change the tip. Do you have more than 1 bag??? Warning we had a few bags rip because they were older on this cupcake marathon.
Can you get disposible plastic decorating bags? I use tiny ziplock for chocolate work but find the tip isn't round.
What I really learned was get the biggest tip you can use and are comfortable with and put some fast music on.
Good luck

Fastest way is definitely doing icing plugs with the plastic wrap. I make a ton of them and line them up then go at it. Whatever doesn't get used, I toss in the freezer.

Ditto on not filling the bag up all the way. I would fill it maybe 3/4 of the way.

I put all the cupcakes in the box then ice away. As it empties, I toss out the empty plug, then I put in a new icing plug and keep going.

Super fast =)