I agree with the difficulty. I feel like my piped message will "ruin" a good cake bc my icing writing is so ugly :/

I agree with the difficulty. I feel like my piped message will "ruin" a good cake bc my icing writing is so ugly :/

I used to have a terrible time piping on cakes. Not only did I have trouble with the piping, my writing on regular paper with a pen was also terrible. I tried using the word imprints, and I also had a set of letters that I could imprint in any order for names and whatnot, and my writing would be okay. Then one day, someone ordered a cake with basically an entire paragraph on it (not exaggerating). There was no way I could use the imprint, and the writing came out horrible. I knew I had to do something.

I went to the store and bought a 2nd grade cursive handbook. You know the ones where you have to trace the dotted lines, etc. Then I used a marker to practice, and held it like a piping bag, so the motion was the same, I just didn't have to worry about flow. I practiced and practiced, and my handwriting on cake has improved tremendously.

As far as getting the words to stay straight and to fit where I need them to, I have a couple of tricks. First, if I'm writing 3 lines, I always write the middle line first. That way I don't get to the bottom and not have enough space.

To keep the words straight, especially if I have a lot to write, I use thread. I cut two pieces of regular sewing thread, and gently lay them across the cake where I want the words to be. I now have a top and bottom line to follow, and my words are perfectly straight. When I'm done, I just gently lift the thread, and as long as I didn't press down on the thread, there is no impression left. Looks like you piped an amazing straight line on the fly

HTH

Marking!!!!!!!

It's been a while. Have you read any replies to your thread? Tried any suggestions? Had a chance to practice? Gotten any better? Watched my writing video? Still having problems writing? Let us know.

Writing on cakes is hard basically because there is nowhere to rest your hand. Practice piping on some laminated sheets. Thin icing but not runny.

There are also some impression letters and phrases out there. Pretty basic and you are limited on sizes.

One thing you can do is print out the phase in what ever font you want (word processor in bold) tape it to cardboard, cover with wax paper and use melted chocolate in whatever color. It dries in just a few minutes.

I tried the transfer method from wax paper the other day. (I couldn't get my royal icing to the right color, so I had to use store bought decorating icing that I had on hand. I was running out of time.) The store bought stuff broke into pieces when I tried to transfer it. But I managed to get the writing on the cake and piece it together. That night I took out my failed royal icing (which turned out not to be a fail after all! LOL) and began practicing my piping techniques on wax paper. I let it set and VOILA! It came off the wax paper in one solid piece! Even the long borders I piped remained intact! I love it! I will seriously use this method from now on! Thanks SRumzis for the tip!!!