Hi Misty – Tip #234 and #233 are very similar. The only difference is the strands will be somewhat thicker with #234. They will be thinner and placed closer together with #233. I used #233 but either will work!

You could try a cake board/box since they won’t fit in a traditional cupcake tray. Use a small dab of icing to attach them to the board so they don’t move around on you.

Definitely after piping for awhile, your hand can heat up the icing inside the pastry bag and make it too soft to pipe nicely. When that happens to me, I empty out my pastry bag and refill with fresh icing, saving the discarded icing to use once it sets up again.

Working with smaller amounts of frosting in your piping bag will help as well. You’ll end up refilling your piping bag more often but you’ll use the frosting before it gets too soft.

Hope that helps some Bridget!