AFirst time posting on CC. I love all the advice, opinions and cakes on this site. You guys are all so talented. This is the first cake I've done with fondant and with line piping. I've piped stars before (buzz lightyear cake in my photos) but never free handed lines. I would love some feedback and tips. Obviously practice will make me better, I'm no where near as good as all of you. Thanks for viewing!!

[IMG]http://cakecentral.com/content/type/61/id/3035678/width/200/height/400[/IMG]

That looks awesome! Piping smooth, even lines isn't easy. I've been decorating for 2 1/2 years and still can't pipe!

AThank you! There's no real pattern or consistency but I wanted to try it out. I'm definitely going to practice more.

ANice effort on your first fondant cake!

My three piping tips:

1. Get your icing consistency perfect, and test it with your intended tip on a piece of scrap paper before starting on your cake. 2. When you pipe, keep the tip up off the surface, and let the icing fall onto the cake, rather than keeping the tip close and scraping the cake occasionally. This helps eliminate jagged bits of piping when you want nice smooth curves. 3. When using royal icing, only put a few spoons of RI in your piping bag, and after 15-20 minutes, remove the icing from the bag and refill with fresh icing. The heat from your hand will affect the consistency of you RI.

HTH!

A@evoir Thank you so much for the wonderful tips!! I will keep those in mind. Sometimes my "hand" was very confident and lines flowed smoothly, other times I was definitely scraping the cake.