Super Newbie Needs Help Please? Not Sure What To Buy...
Decorating By MsInterpret Updated 6 Jul 2011 , 1:12am by scp1127
Hi all;
I am not new to baking but I am new to decorating. I want to make a rosette covered cake that have seen several variations of online. I am pretty confident I will be able to do it with some practice, but my confusion is regarding buying equipment.
All the online tutorials I've seen for these rosettes say you need a pastry bag and a Wilton 1M open star tip.
Seeing as how this is likely to be a one time cake for me to make, I don't see myself using any equipment much in the future so I don't want to spend a lot.
I found that the Wilton Cupcake Decorating 12 pc kit comes with this 1M tip, but I noticed it doesn't include any couplers... will I need to buy a coupler separate or will this kit do the job as-is? I have been reading reviews of it online and some people mention the coupler thing and others do no.
It's about $10. Should I just buy everything separately (bag / coupler / tip) to make this cake? I would really prefer to purchase what I need online as there are no nearby places for me to go and I am having car issues at the moment.
Here's a picture similar to the cake in question (from this site):
And yes, I will be making a large cake so I wondered about the kit having smaller bags...? I will be using cream cheese frosting (and quite a bit of it). I'll be making the cake for about 30 people.
Any input would be very much appreciated. Thanks so much!
The 1M tip is large enough that you don't need a coupler.I just drop it down into my piping bag.You can buy the bags separately in different sizes.I suggest a 10 or 12 inch bag as the 8 is too small and doesn't hold large amounts of icing that you would need to do the larger cake.If you aren't going to ever use the kit then just buy a bag and tip.
The 1M tip is large enough that you don't need a coupler.I just drop it down into my piping bag.You can buy the bags separately in different sizes.I suggest a 10 or 12 inch bag as the 8 is too small and doesn't hold large amounts of icing that you would need to do the larger cake.If you aren't going to ever use the kit then just buy a bag and tip.
Thanks! That explains it! I wasn't understanding why they sold it that way but that makes sense! 
I'd like to add that cream cheese icing tends to be pretty soft and not very cooperative when it comes to piping.
You may want to play around with that first to see if the "lines" or "ridges" in the rosettes hold up for you.
I would like to add that if you want to use cream cheese frosting, I suggest using the Decorator's Cream Cheese Frosting that is listed in the recipes section of the site. It still has a great cream cheese taste but is firm enough to pull of this design successfully.
Good luck!
lol the first cake decorating thing I EVER bought was the wilton cupcake kit with the 1M tip and bags and such, I was just planning on making cupcakes for my daughters birthday and well it snowballed from there...You may think that your only going to use it once but I know that wasnt the case for me I was looking for every excuse to make something after that.. Just buy what you need for the project your working on.
thanks everyone, and about the cream cheese frosting, I found a recipe that is supposedly "sturdier" or whatever. I absolutely loathe buttercream. So I am determined! 
KakeMistress: A friend just said the same thing to me on the phone! She said maybe I'd decide to do it more often. I have always been the one in the family who makes all the birthday cakes, but never anything "pretty". Just yummy.
On a related note, same friend told me she has a pastry bag and several tips I can borrow, but they are not Wilton. Brand is "Chef Style" and it was part of a kit with 4 tips but she says none are "star like". She tried to send me some cell phone pictures and they look vaguely floral and one is a slit. Any idea if I can get this rosette look with a different kind of tip?
Good luck on that sturdy icing. Be careful, because those of us who use European buttercreams have all tried and we can't make a sturdy cream cheese frosting. If it is cold, fine. But the detail and possibly the rosettes themselves may lose the detail, or just slide off.
Many of us on CC do not use American buttercream. Cream cheese is one of those that we make with butter (harder at room temp than cream cheese) and powdered sugar, but it is the least sturdy. Look up the many posts for IMBC, FBC, and SMBC. These are the old cooked meringue and yolk bases that are much less sweet than American. They also use granulated sugar that is meltedd vs. powdered sugar. And none of these contain Crisco. They are true buttercreams.
Good luck on that sturdy icing. Be careful, because those of us who use European buttercreams have all tried and we can't make a sturdy cream cheese frosting. If it is cold, fine. But the detail and possibly the rosettes themselves may lose the detail, or just slide off.
Many of us on CC do not use American buttercream. Cream cheese is one of those that we make with butter (harder at room temp than cream cheese) and powdered sugar, but it is the least sturdy. Look up the many posts for IMBC, FBC, and SMBC. These are the old cooked meringue and yolk bases that are much less sweet than American. They also use granulated sugar that is meltedd vs. powdered sugar. And none of these contain Crisco. They are true buttercreams.
Oh no! That makes me sad. 
Maybe I should do a practice run? I will check out the others you mentioned. I love cream cheese and my issue with buttercream has always been the sweetness! So maybe i'd like one of the others, but all I've ever had was nauseatingly sweet buttercream that I scrape off the cake (even as a little kid)!
Everyone's favorite is IMBC... Italian meringue buttrcream. It is tricky to learn. Just have your computer on as you try it and plenty of members will help you through it. Cake Love owner, Warren Brown has a tutorial on his site. But He doesn't say that the time to get to room temp could be as long as 15 minutes. Once you try this and get it right, the possibilities are endless for flavors. My preference is French Buttercream, same process using yolks.
http://www.earlenescakes.com/icings.htm This is a sturdy recipe for cream cheese frosting.
That shortening and powdered sugar base is the same as American buttercream to me. That is what she said she hates. I can't eat it either.
Yes, honestly, the shortening aspect grosses me out. Just the thought... :::shudder::::
This is the recipe I found along with the cake recipe and tutorial for the cake I am wanting to make:
http://bakingequalslove.blogspot.com/2011/05/weddings-weddings-weddings-and-lemon.html
Cream cheese frosting:
800 g cream cheese
250 g unsalted butter, softened
3 tsp vanilla
7-8 cups icing sugar, sifted
She recommends refrigerating after decorating to 'set' the cream cheese.
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