Anyone have a trick to making straight line on your cake, weather it be on the sides or on the top of you cakes. Mine always look like Ive had a few to many drinks. lol
I find the best way is to squeeze and attach the first section of the line to your cake surface, then as you continue to squeeze, lift the tip up off the surface just a bit and let the icing flow as you move along. Also having a rather soft, smooth icing helps too.
i use a ruler to make a line then ice over it , i have placed the ruler over the icing b4 it crusted and when it was cruste. both work fine
I find the best way is to squeeze and attach the first section of the line to your cake surface, then as you continue to squeeze, lift the tip up off the surface just a bit and let the icing flow as you move along. Also having a rather soft, smooth icing helps too.
Absolutely. Let gravity do the work. Move your hand/arm quickly ... moving slow may cause a shakiness to show up. Keep a good steady squeeze .... a light pressure can cause breaks in the lines.
I have a question regarding this, too. I am new here and have learned so much from all you wonderfully helpful (and friendly) cake decorators, so TIA!
If you are making your lines on the side of the cake, do you start at the bottom then go up, or vice versa? Or is it just a question of preference??
The shakey hand syndrome gets me too. To mark the straight lines on a cake frosted with buttercream, I use a piece of dry (uncooked) spaghetti.
Just line it up where you want and gently press it to indent a line. Doing what Shirley and Debi mentioned works best but for me, I think it really is a matter of practice to avoid a shakey hand. I start at the top of the line and go down.
KimAZ
I saw a tip on another forum that someone used a laser level to do straight lines. One of these days I'll try it.
JUDI
I like that idea, I got one of these for my DH for x-mas, maybe I should confiscake it!!
Good Luck.
I'm so glad this came up! I can't draw a straight line to save my life! 
i just did a yankees cake a few weekends ago and did blue pinstripes. i used a plastic ruler, indented a line into the frosting, then just filled it in with the blue. (and normally, i can't draw a straight line with a ruler! lol)
it also helped to go fast, rather than think about it too much.
good luck
I sort of have a question regarding this. I tried making a cake with 'solid' lines around the side... I got the pic from another CCer here, I tried making it this weekend and ended up taking it all off because my lines were wavy and slanted and also my buttercream had air pockets in them, so they looked really sloppy. Any suggestions on doing this better?
Here's the cake I got the idea from (by cakesbyallison) - I just love this cake.
Wow, what a great looking cake! Very sharp!
It looks like these lines are made with a bigger tip, like a #5 maybe. It also looks like it's just an fast up and down motion to make them. (Closest example I can find to explain what I mean is this pic of my sample cakes .... made with a star tip and and fast back-n-forth motion http://www.cakecentral.com/modules.php?name=gallery&file=displayimage&pid=248913 )
there is also an impression mat you could use to get the same affect
see samples on this site http://earlenescakes.com/productexamples.htm
I thought about using the 'comb' to create the lines, but I was doing this on a round cake, so that wouldn't work too well to go up and down..
Tip 5 eh? I was using Tip 10... I was just struggling with this. I actually thought it looked better UP CLOSE than far away... which NEVER happens for my cakes! lol.
My other struggle was getting them to line up right at the top so I could put a border on it evenly...
I saw a cake like that on the cover of Mich Turner's "Spectacular Cakes" book and I believe Peggy Porschen has a cake similar to it -- with the vertical lines on the side of the cake. Not a wiggle on them! Oh how do they do that??? 
Straight lines???/HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! I can never make a straight line, I blame it on being lefthanded althoug I know it's really just me. This is one thing I could definately use any advice on whatsoever. BTW, I loved that green orchid cake also, but knew there'd never be any way I could do those lines.
wow, nice job on the yankees cake
thanks!
(is that your puppy!? he/she is adorable!!!)
I've also used spaghetti to make an indent in my crusted buttercream....for the football field yard markers on my sports cakes! I also let gravity do the work, as indydebi stated earlier!
Spaghetti!! That's a GREAT idea!!! (writing in 'cool cake tips' notebook as we speak...)
the spaghetti is a good idea, but knowing my clumsiness, i would drop it into the frosting and make finger prints in the cake, trying to get it out.
Cool tips thread: http://forum.cakecentral.com/cake-decorating-ftopicp-3207263.html#3207263
Here's another cool tips thread, although I don't think it's the other one I was thinking of... http://forum.cakecentral.com/modules.php?name=Forums&file=viewtopic&p=2090751#2090751
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