Piping gel

Piping gel is purchased ready to use. It is made from sugar, corn syrup solids, and vegetable gum, such as gum arabic. It is very sweet and not very pleasant to eat by itself (as you can probably imagine from the ingredient list), but it is one of the most practical decorating materials in today’s pastry shop. Although it looks artificial next to a chocolate decoration (for special petits fours or showpieces, you should use piping chocolate), because piping gel is so inexpensive and easy to work with it makes a useful tool for everyday decorating or to add just a small touch of color. For example, you can use it to fill in some of the small loops in a design piped in chocolate. Piping gel is available in a clear, colorless form as well as in various colors. Because many of the colors are a bit bright, I recommend buying the clear gel and coloring it yourself to pastel shades, or, if you are using quite a bit, add clear gel to the colored product to soften the shade.