The Parchment Paper Hack For An Easy Piping Bag

We've all been there: you just finished baking a delectable birthday cake and are getting ready to adorn it with frosting, sprinkles, and candles. But then you realize, you don't have a piping bag! Should you just settle for using a butter knife to slather the spread on like an amateur? Not today. Luckily, there is a hack to frost a beautiful confection in a flash, and that is by using parchment paper.

Simply take a sheet of parchment paper, roll into a cone shape, and cut a hole at the bottom – that's it. Voilà, you will have a quick and easy solution to any frosting emergency. No need for metal piping tips either, because you can cut the paper cone into as small or large of a hole as you would like and are not forced into a specific size like with traditional piping bags. If you want to make sure the paper stays in the shape of your liking, you can secure it with any tape you have on hand.

If you are a master at origami and have advanced folding skills, YouTuber Brittnee Kay has another technique for creating a parchment paper piping bag that involves a little more intricate folding and cutting than just rolling into a cone.

Surprisingly, piping bags made out of parchment paper are actually preferred over plastic ones for melted chocolate and particularly for icing cookies (since you probably only need a small amount for those treats).

Besides being a great material for piping bags, parchment paper has several other helpful purposes. If you are accustomed to lining pans with aluminum foil, you should think about swapping that out for parchment paper. Matt Pomerantz, founder of Zucker's Bagels & Smoked Fish, told Food Republic, "If you want to use a surface besides your baking sheet, we recommend using parchment paper since it is a non-stick surface compared to aluminum foil."

So, the next time you are whipping up homemade banana bread or gooey fudgy macadamia and peanut butter brownies, reach for your new best friend, parchment paper. Parchment paper also works great as muffin liners, placemats, and can even be used as gift wrap (you can just doodle and personalize it yourself with markers).

Finally, did you know that there is a parchment paper hack that makes storing raw bacon a breeze? Simply place a sheet of parchment paper on a surface, line the bacon vertically along the sheet and roll the sheet up horizontally. Since the paper is see-through, you can cut each wrapped piece so that it can be unraveled one at a time when needed, and store the rest in a plastic bag.