Reddit reviews DayMark 12" PipingPal Disposable Pastry Bag with Dispenser (100 Bags)

I feel Im a bit of an intermediate cookie decorator at the moment. For someone whose just getting started on the cheap, really all you need is some ziploc sandwich bags and some toothpicks. It sounds janky, but it works quite well with simpler designs while you get some practice in. Also some food coloring gels. You dont want to use the liquid stuff because it will water down your icing and add an extra layer of frustration when trying to get your consistency right.

That aside, theres the baking side of things - baking pans and maybe a couple silpat liners (reusable silicone baking mat). They pay for themselves with the money you save from not having to buy paper pan liners. And some cookie cooling racks, which you can find pretty cheaply at Kmart.

Not much else to it. If you want to invest a bit more in it, then Id suggest grabbing a big roll of plastic piping bags, a handful of #3 tips (cheapy wiltons are fine) and couple of #1.5 tips (Id go with PME for the finer tips, theyre more consistent in size), and some couplers to go along with each tip you bought. Also a scribe tool is nifty, the finer point on it is nicer to work with than a toothpick.

Youd basically use the bigger tip for filling in areas with large amounts of icing, the finer tip for detail work, and the scribe tool to pop out the bubbles and tweak the icing once on the cookie. I still keep sandwich bags around to do the "flooding" as theyre plentiful, easy to fill, and I can mix up a bunch of colors for them easily.

Anyway, hope that helps. I linked stuff to Amazon to give you an idea of what Im talking about, but Amazon is far from the cheapest place to get this stuff. Im in the US, so I dont know where in Canada would be best to get this stuff.

Make sure you have several bowls for mixing icing colors. You can also use tupperware for this.

Spatulas. The more the better. I got a bunch of tiny ones from Walmart for $1 each that I use to mix icing colors, and bigger ones to scrape down the sides of the mixer. They're super useful.

Sifter. Useful for both powdered sugar and flour. Lumpy icing sucks.

Rolling pin. Standard size. I have a fondant rolling pin, which doesn't have handles, it's just a long plastic cylinder, but I prefer to roll out smaller batches at a time to minimize dough sticking to the rolling surface, so a regular rolling pin works just fine.

The rest is stuff you'll probably need to go to a craft store to get. Or online. I use Amazon a lot.

Parchment paper.

Pastry Bags.

Cellophane Bags. For packaging cookies individually, if you want to do that. You can use different sizes, but these are good for most average cookies.

Rolling Pin Spacers. These suckers are awesome. I use the yellow ones, they're about 1/4" and perfect for rolling out cookies to an even thickness every time.

Needle Tool. This thing is a lifesaver for popping air bubbles and smoothing out icing, but toothpicks work just as well.

As for ingredients, I prefer to get my Meringue Powder online as well.

Americolor gel is the shit. But you can use the Wilton stuff that craft stores sell just as easily. No big deal.

I buy my flour and powdered sugar in bulk at Costco and store it in big plastic tubs. Always get more powdered sugar than you think you'll need; it keeps well, and nothing sucks quite as much as ruining a batch of icing, or running out, and having to stop everything and go to the store for more powdered sugar.

I'm making a batch right now, so if I think of anything else I'll come back and edit this comment. All this stuff was all collected over a period of many months, so don't feel like you have to have all of it now. Just get what you need for the project you're doing, improvise as you can, and catalogue what you think will really help you with the next batch.

Hope that helps! :)

Edit: Was reminded during my decorating this evening: you're gonna need paper towels. So many paper towels.