Here's how I do it, Jenn.
Instead of writing like you do on paper you know with the paper right in front of you and the lines running horizontally at right angles to your body; I turn the cake so that the short side is toward me and it's parallel with my arms if i were to stretch them out. And I write from the bottom to the top. That helps to keep it straight and lined up. As for centering the words, that's a little tougher to explain but I'll try...
I look at how long the word is and how many letters it has in it so like the word in question "CONGRATULATiONS" has 15 letters in it so the "T" in "...grat would be the center letter. You could start there in the center with the "T" and write "tulations" and then write "congra" on the other side. That way your word is exactly centered. If you have the letter presses from wilton you could do the same thing. Just start at the center and go from there.
What is your most dreaded request?
While I haven't had many requests I do find full length sentences to be the most dreaded for myself. The "over the hill" cake in my pics is my example. I had to try and squeeze "as long as you're over the hill you may as well enjoy the view" & "happy birthday" onto too tiny of space. I learned my lesson on that one. When I see the pics of "thank heaven for little boys/girls" I think how did they get that one on there?
I always have a hard time squeezing "Congratulations" on and keeping it centered! Do you have a trick for centering your writing? What is your most dreaded request?
If I'm not sure about the spacing, I always write a practice on paper with the tip I plan to use. That gives me a visual of what the word will look like (as far as centering needed). Practice always lets me write straighter, but I still mess up occasionally. Once I've written it on paper, I then air write it over the cake. That usually gives me a sense of where I'll wind up with the word and I can adjust accordingly. Hope this helps. 
Sarah
Centering is difficult for me too. Chaptips first method would cause my brain to shortcircuit... I just know it. If I tried it the second way, my 'Congra' would probably fall short or squeeze into the tulations.
I scrape it off and reappy a lot when I do it manually. I took a picture of my first cake and I almost wish I hadn't! The writing looked horrible. That was before I realized how easy it was to scrape icing off of a frozen cake.
The Kopykake projector is a big help when it comes to centering and writing on a straight line. Special fonts are fun and easy with the projector. There is no guesswork about spacing or placement.
I refuse to write on cakes! Kidding. I am an "eyeballer". But it's the one thing that I hate the most. I have good handwriting on paper, but as soon as I try to write anything on a cake, it's another story.
Angie
I've always had a ton of trouble with writing on cakes so I tried the "royal icing letters" on here in the recipe section..I think. Anyway, you just print out what font you want to use and what size and just put a piece of wax paper over top and pipe it out with royal icing. Then you let it dry out for a few days and they pop right off. Sometimes if you don't do it a day or 2 ahead they are harder to get off, and you have to be really careful about them breaking..but so far its worked for me!
One thing that I do that helps to keep the letters all in a straight line is using a cheap laser level - it puts a line across the cake where I want to put the writiing and that way it is nice and straight!
I really like the idea of putting the center letter in the center and then the rest of the word to each side.....that idea will help me a LOT!!
Thanks Heiser, I like the Royal Icing idea and will use that for my Aunt's B'day cake for next week.
Please let me know how it goes when you try the royal icing letters. I usually pipe out whatever I need to say a few different times just in case some of the letters break then you have some extra ones. But usually if I let them dry long enough there aren't hardly any that break. I always make sure i print out the message in bold so that its easier to see and then the letters can be thicker as well. I really hope you like this method! If you need any help please let me know. Good luck
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