Does anyone have any tips for making really good basket weave. I've looked in all of the galleries so I know that some of you out there are AWESOME at this technique. Please help!!!!!!

The only tips I have are to make sure you mark your cake evenly, set your cake up on something to make it eye level when you are doing the basketweave, and start at the bottom of the cake and work your way up to the top.

Melissa

I totally "eye-ball" it. In the class they told us to measure with a ruler and mark it at the top and bottom and everything, but I find this really tedious. Make sure you sift your powdersugar really well because any bumps at all will clog the tip and it is a nightmare. I keep my icing relatively stiff so that it holds it's shape really well (but not so thick it hurts your hand). Also, I think a tighter weave looks a lot better, so keep the horizontal "lines" a little shorter.

Our teacher just said to start with one side (work your way around) and space your weave with the width of your tip. That's worked pretty well for me.

This technique helps me to keep my weave even. When doing the horizontal lines I tap a small amount of frosting in between each icing line. My weave is kept even in spacing when my eye has something to follow.

I guess I didn't realize the amount of time some of you put into your cakes. I'm an eyeball basket weaver myself. It has always worked out. I didn't learn it in any class either. I just decided it was something that I needed to learn how to do. It's not so hard. Just a little time consuming. I can't imagine marking my cake. It would take me longer to do that.

I'm an "eyeballer" also. Use the width of the tip as a guide. Just learned it on my own. I also can't understand why so many bakeries charge extra for this. It's SO much easier than "normal" icing of a wedding cake! I'd do basketweave every darn day on every darn cake I ever make if I could convince 'em to order it! LUV this design!

I LOVE basketweave and it is my best technique of anything I do. When I started I did measure and used a toothpick to make vertical lines up and down all the way around the cake. This was so tedious and after 2 cakes I went to the eyeball mode of piping. The best tip I can give you is to use the same color icing to crumbcoat as you will be using to basketweave. It hides a multitude of sins if they are the same color rather than using a basic white crumbcoat and then tint your basketweave a different color. All the gaps will show through. It does take a little patience and some practice but you will get it, I remember I was hopeless when I started and now it is my favorite. BEst of luck to you

I start off with making sure the cake is pretty level. Then I use the width of my tip for a guide. For the horizontal part, I start from the botton and go up. Sometimes is doesn't quite come out even on the top edge but that is where that good ole border comes in to play. It hides the uneveness quite nicely.

The basketweave is one of my favorites to do.