Damn Pastry Tips

What I hate more than anything about icing a cake is cleaning the damn tips. I let them sit for ages between uses, crusting and rusting, and thinking, well, they are cheap, maybe I can just buy new ones... I really hate cleaning them, and haven't been able to come up with a good way of cleaning them.

I do not have a true solution, but I have come up with something fairly effective. A bottle brush, with nipple brush. It is for cleaning baby bottles and the nipples, and sippy cups, but damned if they ain't useful for cleaning pastry tips. The brush is very stiff and good at scraping out the butter-laden gunk that collects.

I have also heard that putting the tips in a bottle with hot water and soap, lidding the bottle and shaking it works well. I have yet to try it, but I definitely intend to. Maybe when that little jar of relish is done it will work nicely.