I have only one kind of border down for my cakes.. and that is the shell border.. It's getting pretty darn boring.. I am a self taught person.. SO if anyone has directions PLEASE send them my way... I really want to learn this:

The border used on the top edge of this cake is a reverse shell border. It is done with the same tip used for a shell border. Instead of piping a small hump and pulling straight start just like you would for a shell and come over the top to the left and down like you would end a shell. then on the next shell do the oposite come over the top to the right.
Does this make sense? It's kind of like a little C motion and then pull down.

The reverse shell is a very easy border...once you get the hang of it. I practiced it over & over on some wax paper until I got it...lol. I've even done it with the plain round tips...looks great. Sometimes I trace over it with a tip 2 in a coordinating color, or do another one on top of it but with a smaller version of the same kind of tip...or add dots to the center of the little swirl part of it.

You can do the shell montion with different tips ,to vary the look of it. If you use a round tip it will give you what htey call the bead boarder. I've also seen the leaf tip used with the shell motion.

If you have a Wilton Yearbook, look in the center section and you will see some directions for different boarders as well.

You can try a bead border. They look very clean and contemporary. I've seen alot of cakes with them, and there are directions in the Wilton book as well.

I stumbled across this website that has some really nice cakes with great borders. Hope this helps.

http://www.caremscakes.com/cakes/

Angie

how about a triple reverse shell, i love this one. or a scalloped zig-zag can look real nice. a zigzag done with tip 67 is nice too.

Ooooohhhh....very pretty! I'll have to try that one out! Thanks, sweetcakes!

I love the triple reverse shell! Really pretty!

Sweetcakes, that is a very pretty cake!

Thanks sweetcakes for sharing...very pretty cake.

I love doing the rope border~ Just "S" going in & out of each other. Ntertayneme taught me & Misdawn, BooBoo the reverse shell border. The way she showed us was cursive "L's". Just start doing cursive L & you'll figure it out. I could never figure it out in Wilton class. Just practice & practice & you'll figure it out.

Sweetcakes, I do love that border too!

You could do rosettes, leaves, bead, stars. There are some books out there that have all kinds of different border ideas.

Rope borders are super easy and neat too. I don't know how to add a link so if someone can help.......???

LOOK I DID IT!! My first reverse shell border!!!! I'm so excited!!!

VERY NICE!!!!!!!!!!!

great job Brian! Your pretty darn good for self taught.You shuld go on Ebay and buy wilton course books There alot of info in them.

Once you get that reverse shell border motion down you have limitless options. The following cake is one I did in class this last week. It would be considered a double reverse shell border, however I did it with the rose tip, fat end down. Hope this gives you some more ideas. Just start playing with tips you never know what you'll find!

Leily

You guys ROCK! I just learned the reverse shell from all your posts and did it on a 1/2 sheet for a customer...looks great and it feels so good to be out of the shell rut!

I am soooo old school! I still love the big over sized shell tips for my borders. To me they just make the cake. I do reverse too. But with my brides, I am having to do really tailored borders. The big shells sure do hide alot of the problem areas too!

wilton has a new site that's called bakedecoratecelebrate. There's pages that show how to do them. here is the one for the reverse:
http://www.bakedecoratecelebrate.com/techniques/reverseshell.cfm?cat=9