What Do You Use To Write So Nice On 'tags'?
Decorating By Regan Updated 29 May 2007 , 11:56pm by nrctermite
Do you have a picture of the tags you are talking about?? This will bump your post back up to the top, incase a CC member knows what you mean. Jen
I make my tags of gumpaste, just roll and cut to size and let dry completely on both sides, I keep flipping them back and forth till dry. Then I print out my message from Wordpad, you can choose your font style, size and color. Print it out, cut to size of gumpaste plaque and attach with a very thin layer of clear piping gel or thin layer of clear corn syrup that has been thinned a bit with water. Just brush it onto the plaque with a small artists paintbrush. If you have an edible image printer you can just print the script inscription out onto a edible image paper sheet, chill in the freezer for a few seconds, peel away the backing and attach to the dried gumpaste.
I'm glad this topic came up, I'm terrible at writing! 
I agree with Shirley. That is exactly what I do. If you don't have a printer you can practice and use the edible ink pens on rice paper. I would hesitate to use regular paper and ink. Just in case someone might eat it. That would be embarrasing.
If you use regular printer paper and just a very thin coat of piping gel or corn syrup it does not come through and stain the paper. I have nice handwriting, but I am not good at writing with icing, so these save me time and heartache. I do sometimes make a fondant braid around the frame of the plaque, just two thin strips of fondant pushed through a clay gun or extruder with a one hole disc, then I twist the two pieces together to form a rope and glue it onto the plaque with piping gel or a bead of royal icing. I also sometimes paint the braided fondant gold or silver with luster dust thinned with Alcohol of somekind, Everclear or vodka. I have also hot glue gunned strings of pearl beading around the plaques.
Here is one done that way.
Wow, Shirley. I'm taking the liberty of speaking for all CCers when I name you the CC Cake Matriarch. Damn...you are good!!!!
Thanks, Shirley, that's really awesome!! 
As far as the food markers go, I only tried them once or twice a long time ago. It was when the "Food Doodlers" and Wilton's Food Writers first came out. I didn't care for them because even though they said they had a "fine tip", they didn't, and I couldn't write a nice fine line or do detail work with them because the lines I was making were just too fat. Have they improved any, and if so, is there a certain brand you'd recommend?
Thanks in advance!! 
my wriring is far from perfect... but on my plaques and scrolls i use a fine pointed high quality paint brush and airbrus color ( or gel color thinned with vodka) and sometimes old or silver luster dust wet with vodka- it lends a cool pen and quill type lettering ( and then I don't mess up the whole cake)
Shirley...........I don't mean to be ignorant though I'm a visual person and I'm not grasping how you get the paper with print to the fondant attached without the paper rumbling and bleeding?????? I always wondered if you could make a plaque from vellum it's see through ??? Any ideas?? I'm trying to see this done yours is GREAT!!!!! I'm with you my writing isn't bad I've tried the edible markers in a cake in my photos but I tend to go up or downhill 
Shirley~*~ What a great idea...thanks for sharing that tip with us!
PaulaT has a great idea about writing on tags which she explained to me once, but I wasn't getting it. PM her and she can explain it better.
If you are good at piped writing, chocolate is always good in a paper cone with very thin opening in the tip. Otherwise I think stencils are good too, (especially if you're not good at calligraphy, like on that cake before...so beautiful!). With a stencil you can just spread royal icing with a little spatula, the kind with the narrow end.
Practicing is also always your best bet. That's what I've noticed for me.
I also like plaques out of marzipan, the process is the same as gumpaste, roll and dry. ou can also curl the edges and burn with a lighter to mke it look like an old scroll. (deviating from the topic, but it's cool) Jesika
Thanks Shirley....can't wait to try this out.
I do the same method shirley does, except instead of gumpaste I use the foam boards you can buy for arts and crafts. The come in tons of colors and I cut them with Scrapbooking scissors to make them have cutsie edges. Got the idea from CAMBO Works like a charm and is fairly cheap. I save my Michael's coupon and go buy a large pack of them every couple months. 1 sheet of it can do 3 plaques. HTH!
OK-Shirley...I love this idea, because I really suck at writing! But, just to clarify, you are actually attaching the computer paper to the tag? I assume we just tell the customer that it is non edible?
I am making this cake this weekend for a wedding. It is a topsy turvey from fondant. I am actually writing lyrics and the music notes to go with it on each tier. I was planning on piping it all, but I am thinking that this might work and look A LOT nicer! I guess I could make larger "plaques" and attach the lyrics to that? Would that work?
Great ideas. Thanks so much for the tips. ShirleyW your plaque and cake are fabulous.
http://www.cakecentral.com/modules.php?name=gallery&file=displayimage&pid=445033
http://www.cakecentral.com/modules.php?name=gallery&file=displayimage&pid=445013
on this cake, the tag was so small that i needed a really fine tipped writing instrument...most of the time i use a fine tipped paintbrush and freehand it, like this: http://www.cakecentral.com/modules.php?name=gallery&file=displayimage&pid=143143
but again, this was going to be a small tag...i didnt want to use the edible food color markers because the time i tried them, they were flexible and had huge tips- so for the onesie cake, i bought a new NON TOXIC fine tipped regular marker pen and just handwrote. you can do this- just make sure to say the tag is not edible- however if someone does pop it in their mouth anyway, non toxic ink is not going to kill anyone...kids do it all the time.
OK-Shirley...I love this idea, because I really suck at writing! But, just to clarify, you are actually attaching the computer paper to the tag? I assume we just tell the customer that it is non edible?
I am making this cake this weekend for a wedding. It is a topsy turvey from fondant. I am actually writing lyrics and the music notes to go with it on each tier. I was planning on piping it all, but I am thinking that this might work and look A LOT nicer! I guess I could make larger "plaques" and attach the lyrics to that? Would that work?
Of course you can use edible markers or icing to write on the plaques if you feel your writing looks nice enough. This is just an alternative for those who would like to use different fonts, colors or sizes of print. I like the variety you have to choose from in Wordpad, the Edwardian script is the one I use most often, but one that is kind of fun on a whimsy cake is curlz, I always select BOLD as well, it shows up better on the plaques. Yes, this is just basic computer printer paper, the message is printed out, cut to size for your plaque and if you use just a very light coat of adhesive, either the piping gel or corn syrup it does not come through the paper or cause it to bleed. If you glop a lot on I imagine the paper would absorb it and make a mess. If you are concerned about this, just add the adhesive to the back edges of the paper, and not to the entire surface. You can make the plaques and the script as large as you like and of course, tell your customer these are not to be considered edible and should be removed from the cake. Many people choose to save them as a keepsake. The idea of using foam core would work, it's just that I always have a batch of gumpaste ready because I teach gumpaste flower classes, so that is what I use to make the plaques.
If you have an edible image printer, edible ink cartridges and edible image sheets to use on a gumpaste plaque, then you could consider the entire plaque edible. Not that I would want to eat gumpaste, but some people are always curious as to what it will taste like.
For the music notes, you could make a strip or banner of gumpaste, dry it on the side of a cake pan the same size as the cake tier you will be using. Print out or stencil your music notes to a piece of printer paper cut to the exact size as your banner and glue it on. You would have to be careful to get it on smoothly on the first try so it doesn't wrinkle, because if you try and smooth it with your hand I think the ink would smear or smudge.
Shirley W,
What tip did you use for the border on the top of the cake?
That cake is absolutely gorgeous! You are a genius!
Phyllis
Phyllis,
For the borders of that cake. The top shell tip is the same one I used for the bottom border, it is an Ateco # 822 shell or star tip. On the top I just used more pressure and piped large puffy shells. Use a #104 rose tip with the wide end down, the opening facing the back of the shell and pipe a zig zag ruffle over the top of the shells and ending at the front of the shell then follow over the top of every OTHER ruffle with a plain piping tip in whatever size you like, #2 is very delicate, but use a contrasting colored icing so the line shows up. Use the same tip and color for the zig zag marks around the bottom shell border as well.
Quote by @%username% on %date%
%body%