Piping Grass for Football Cupcakes

Just in time for Super Bowl Sunday: how to make grass out of icing! This is the last step in making football-themed cupcakes featuring chocolate footballs and royal icing goal posts. Fortunately, piping grass is easy with the Wilton tip #233:

 

This multi-hole tip is good for piping fur, hair, birds' nests, hay, yarn, some flower centers (like the daisy), and, as previously mentioned, grass. Start to cultivate your turf by laying down a thin layer of green icing; I used an offset spatula for this (the same one I used to fill the bag; how resourceful!):

Hold the tip perpendicular to the cake, just above the surface. Get used to doing these three steps rapidly and repetitively: squeeze, stop, pull away. When you squeeze, draw the tip up just a few millimeters for consistent, freshly-cropped grass. When it's the right length for you, stop the pressure and pull the tip away at the same perpendicular angle you piped at. If the grass stretches out, falls over, etc., smooth it out and pipe over it. Once you get a feel for piping grass you'll be doing it rapid-fire. 

Don't let the "turf" below show in between your clusters of grass; pipe them as close together as possible…

 …until the top is covered. If you have a couple of sugar googly eyes handy, now would be a great time to abandon the football theme and make a Muppet.

Have you found other uses for Tip #233? I want to hear about them!