Wilton Dessert Decorator Plus Cake Decorating Tool Review

We purchased the Wilton Dessert Decorator Plus Cake Decorating Tool so our reviewer could put it to the test in her kitchen. Keep reading for our full product review.

If you’re just getting into the wonderful world of cake decorating, products like the Wilton Dessert Decorator Plus Cake Decorating Tool may catch your eye. However, cake decorating tools can be hit-or-miss, as some are more gimmicky than effective.

To see if it’s worth your money, we took the Wilton Dessert Decorator Plus Cake Decorating Tool for a test drive in the kitchen, using it to decorate cakes, cookies, and cupcakes with our favorite frostings. We filled, decorated, and cleaned the tool, then refilled it and decorated some more, thoroughly testing its abilities. Here’s what we think about it. 

Design: Works like a cookie press

The design of the Wilton Dessert Decorator Plus is similar to a cookie press, and it works like one too, with a trigger that dispenses the frosting onto your dessert. The tool includes four piping tips, a filling tip, and two couplers. Plus, it can accommodate most standard pastry tips, and the included tips can be used on their own with pastry bags, making it even more versatile. 

Our favorite tip was the star tip, which can be used for making large or small flowers, as well as a fancy border along the edges of your dessert. Our favorite use for it, though, was frosting cupcakes with a pretty swirl. Our second favorite option was the filling tip, which we used to push a tasty cream into cupcakes. The tool also includes a large round tip, a ribbon tip, and a leaf tip.

Because all the tips are fairly large, they can push a lot of frosting through—like when we piped larger flowers to cover the sides of a cake. The Decorator Plus made quick work of the buttercream roses, but if you’re decorating a large cake with a lot of roses, you’d likely have to refill the tool several times. 

We liked that the tool came with a comprehensive instruction sheet. Not only does it show what patterns the tips can make, but it also includes instructions on how to hold and move the tool to make designs. While not as good as taking a decorating class and getting hands-on instruction, it’s a good starting point to familiarize yourself with all the tips and what they’re supposed to do.

Quality: Sturdy

While the tool looks similar to a cookie press, it’s less robust, which makes sense given that frosting is less dense than cookie dough. The plunger shaft is metal, but the rest of the parts are made from sturdy plastic. Overall, we think the Wilton Dessert Decorator Plus will hold up well—as long as it’s not dropped. 

For folks who need a more durable tool, Wilton also makes a metal version—the Dessert Decorator Pro—but it’s more expensive.

Performance: Pastry bag alternative

This tool is meant to do the work of a pastry bag, making dessert decorating easier for people who aren’t used to handling plastic bags full of frosting. Because the Dessert Decorator requires less coordination than a pastry bag, it might be a better option for kids to use, but they’ll still need the strength to squeeze the trigger.

Our least favorite part of using this tool was filling it. Our first effort required a small spatula and a lot of mashing, but eventually, we figured out that we could use the plunger to help draw the frosting into the tool. After several refills we got quicker at it, and while it still wasn’t as quick as filling a pastry bag, we wouldn’t consider it difficult.

Overall, this tool does its job well, but the included tips are best for larger designs, like making rosette tops on cupcakes, piping filling into cupcakes, and creating large flowers, lines, and designs on cakes. Since the Dessert Decorator Plus can accommodate regular piping tips, we fitted it with one of our own small round tips to try some lettering. It worked surprisingly well and wasn’t as awkward to write with as we had expected.

Not tired of sweets yet, we even used it to pipe whipped cream onto a mug of hot chocolate. It worked well, and the clear barrel let us know that we used more than our fair share of whipped cream.

Besides decorating sweets, one of the suggested uses for the Dessert Decorator Plus is filling deviled eggs, so we gave it a try using a star tip. It was super simple and fast, and it gave us a pretty result. If we had to fill dozens of eggs, this tool would make the job significantly easier

In the same way, this tool could be used for other savory foods, like dolloping soft cheese spread onto crackers, piping a mashed potato border onto shepherd’s pie, or making pretty twice-baked potatoes.

Cleaning: Easy to hand wash

The plunger assembly of the Dessert Decorator Plus should be hand washed, but the cylinder, bottom ring, tips, and couplers can be cleaned in the top rack of the dishwasher. We felt that since we had to hand wash one piece, we might as well just hand wash the rest and keep the pieces all together. 

One of our pet peeves is kitchen gadgets with small parts we have to keep track of, but we figured out that with the plunger extended and the tips and couplers nested, we could store almost everything inside the tool itself. Of course, having the plunger extended meant we needed more space for the tool, so dropping them all into the original box or a resealable plastic bag might be just as sensible.

Price: Inexpensive

At under $20, the Wilton Dessert Decorator Plus is an affordable tool, even if you only use a few times a year. It can accommodate most standard piping tips for making different designs, and the including tips can be used with a pastry bag, making the kit even more versatile.

Wilton Dessert Decorator Plus Cake vs. Yakamoz Pastry DIY Cake Decorating Pen

The Yakamoz Pastry DIY Cake Decorating Pen is another solution for those who don’t want to fight with pastry bags, offering a different method than the Wilton tool we tested. The Yakamoz Pen actually uses pastry bags and tips, but they’re inserted in the tool, which then does the squeezing for you. This means you could fill multiple bags of frosting and switch colors easily, which isn’t possible with the Wilton tool. The price of these two tools is similar, so the real decision is which squeezing method you’d find most comfortable.