Remember before reading this that I am a newbie at this whole cake decorating thing. So here is what happened. I made my cake, made my icing, put it in my bag with the icer tip. Went around the sides of my cake with the icing and it fell off the side of the cake. I then scopped it up and used my spatula to reapply it. When I did this it actually stayed. So what is the trick to get it to stay attached to the cake using the icer tip? In between this and not being able to get royal icing correct, I am about ready to throw in the towel.

Oh my gosh, don't throw in the towel. My suggestion would be to just use the spatula. I have not had very much luck with the icer tip myself. Good luck...and don't give up!!!

That happens to me alot to if I'm not using enough pressure against the side of the cake. When you use the spatula you're kinda "pushing" the icing onto the side of the cake, but using the icing tip sometimes we have a tendency to go very lightly expecting it just to stick.....which is why when it happens to me, just scoop it back up and do it again, with a bit more pressure against the cake. Now, I'm no expert and I could be completely wrong, but that's what works for me

Don't give up I cant use the icer tip so I just use the
spatula. As for the royal icing are you beating it enough. That's what I was doing wrong .

When I use the icing tip, I smooth over w/the spatula later, but so far that hasn't been good either. Because for some reason, I get huge air pockets between the icing and the cake & then big bubbles poof out the sides of the cake.

So I'm just sticking w/the spatula.

You may want to try adding a few more drops of water to the icing to thin it out a bit. The icing may be a little too stiff. That happened to me with the icing tip and it was quite the battle. Next time I used more water to make just a bit thinner consistency and viola! No more problem with it.

Best,
Karen

Thank you Karen, I will definitely try that.

Did you put a crumb coat on the cake first? Icing will stick to icing better than it will stick to bare cake. I learned this during lots of basketweave cakes. If I tried putting the basketweave on bare cake, it would sometimes just fall off. Once I added a base layer of BC, no problems.