I have never done basketweave on side of 9x13. Only on round and oval cake. How do I divide it out correctly?

Thanks for your help!

Do you have one of the old small Wilton flower formers? Those white half tubes? If so you can use that to help divide your cake. Or just figure out how far you want your lines to ba spaced and divide it out that way.

Thanks Texas Sugar. Dont have the wilton flower formers. Will divide out I guess on paper then go from there!

Snap a toothpick in half and use that as your spacer. Mark on either side all the way across your cake

Great Idea w/the toothpicks! thank you so much!

When I learned to do the basketweave, I was taught to use the witdh of the tip to mark the spacing along the bottom of the cake. So I would do my up and down line, then I would take the tip and at the bottom of the cake just press it in, so that it left a mark. You can go one space or two spaces over, depending on if you want a tight or lose basket weave. On the first row, you will do this both before and after your up and down line. When you start piping you will start at the beginning of the 'spaces' on the left side of the line and carry your piped line over to the right of the 'spaces' on the right side of the line.

I've never taken a piece of paper and folded it to mark spaces for basket weave.

If you are good free handing, you can always take a spatula and just press in even lines around the cake. I don't worry about it being perfect because you can adust the lines as you pipe them if you need to.

what texas said .... I use the tip as a measuring tool. I actually never worry about pre-marking or measuring it though ... it just works out. If it comes out a little off,, it will be off in the back where no one will see it. (And cake civilians wouldn't notice if it was off anyway).

So how do you do it on a 9x13? The exact same way you do it on an 8" round or a 10" square.

I never measure it out... like indydebi said, it just works out or is a little bit off on the back where no one would notice.

I use my corners as guides. I work with each side of the cake as its own section, and I know each corner will have a vertical 'post', so I eye-ball each side in half, and make a small mark with my spatula or toothpick, and then in half again, and again, until my marks are about 1in apart (or whatever look you are going for). Then I know I won't have to stretch to make it fit together at the end.

Then to make my horizontal 'weaves' by starting at the bottom. I don't like to start at the top because my cakes aren't always 100% level, but I do know the bottom of my cake is. I do one across, then above that use my tip as a spacer, then another line across on top of that and so on and so on. Hope that makes sense.