someone on CC once said,, to write out or print out your message on paper,, turn it over and rub oil on it so that you can see it in reverse image,,, lay a piece of wax paper over this,, use piping gel to trace the message that you have typed or written out,, and once you have your cake iced and it has crusted,, turn the wax paper over onto the cake,, may have to gently rub over letters,,, I've done this a couple of times just for practice,, and i love it.. piping gel is great.. Can't remember who told me this,, but thanks,,
edited to say,,, hope this made sense
There are pess letter that you can get at almost any craft supply store. You just press the letters into the cake , release and then pipe over them. I know AC Moore has them (Micheals). I know I personally had to steady my hand I was using to write, with the opposite hand. Other than that, PRACTICE,PRACTICE, PRACTICE! 
It's really difficult when you have to write on a sheet cake. You can't get in a good position to keep it level!!!
I quit writing on cakes all together and now use my printer and my icing sheets! Of course I know I won't always be able to do that. There will come a time that I'll have to write on a cake!
Amy
Writing is my nightmare too! I'm in pastry chef school, and my head Chef says it takes lots of practice! Before I write on a cake, I practice on parchment to "loosen up" my wrist and get it nice and straight. I also hold a ruler over the cake (not touching) and then take a toothpick and make a (light and short) straight line to give a guide to stay straight with. By making it very light and short it really doesn't show once I have written over it.
But, she says "the trick is to relax and flow." Easier said than done! But I keep practicing! It seems the slower I go the more crooked it is. So, I go a little faster and it flows better. I also use a softer consistency of icing...it flows nicer.
I hope this helps and I'm there with ya sister! I hope someone else has better tips, I'll be watching!
I HATE having to write on cakes. My handwriting is aweful.
But I've been practicing. I printed out the alphabet and different sayings in several different fonts and I just put wax paper over the paper and practice going over them. When I'm finished I just scrap off the icing and re-use it. (I only re-use it for the practice writing!)
Hey debilou68! That sounds interesting....So, when you are done with that technique, your writing is actually done in piping gel, not icing correct?
If so, would we just have to color the piping gel first so it was in the color we wanted?
Sweetcakes23
I use a laser beam leveler to cast a straight line across my cakes to keep me from writing down hill..... I too have a lot of problems.. I actually print more than I hand write because I generally am disappointed after I try handwriting a message... I also find a font I like and print out the message on a piece of paper and put that in front of me so that I can copy the writing on to the cake. Keep practicing!!! 
oh sorry,, guess i forgot to say,, once you've done that you have an outline on your cake, and then you just pipe over it with icing,, it really is easy!! I'm by no means an expert, professional, etc.. it was really easy for me,, can also use this to put images on cakes,, haven't tried that yet though,,, good luck,,
Thanks debilou68! Great idea! And Kbenz I love the lazer beam idea also! My hubby has one of those! This site is so cool.
cakemommy--- i haven't had any trouble with piping directly over top of the piping gel,,I pipe the gel on with a small tip,, so that theres not a lot of gel to pipe on top of,, if that makes sense.. I don't really let it sit to dry or anything,, but i don't see what it would hurt if you did..
Oh I really have to say that for me the royal icing technique is by far the best method. Print a font from the computer and then trace it over parchment or wax (I think parchment works better...the silicone treated kind by wilton is the one I like) then let it dry a day or so and peel off carefully and place on your cake! Make a couple of extra because sometimes they break. My pansy, petunia, pooh, and blue cake with daisies are the cakes I have this method.
Another method is the pin prick...I liked this before I figured out the royal icing. Print out a font again, poke small holes with a needle through it and then press the paper onto the cake. A very faint line will show up to trace. But I sort of dented the BC doing this a few times.
I recently tried doing writing by piping royal on waxed paper, and letting it dry. It was not as simple as it sounds. The letters kept on breaking, and it was almost impossible to get the letters lined up perfectly - ether unevenly spaced, or not straight! I hope practice makes perfect, cause my handwriting is terrible!!
I recently tried doing writing by piping royal on waxed paper, and letting it dry. It was not as simple as it sounds. The letters kept on breaking, and it was almost impossible to get the letters lined up perfectly - ether unevenly spaced, or not straight! I hope practice makes perfect, cause my handwriting is terrible!!
YOu know I had trouble on one of my cakes with them breaking, but that was when I used the wax paper. On the wilton parchment they really didnt stick. You do have to be pretty careful though. Also I do mine in script so you really only have to worry about lining up the word, not each letter. Give it another try, it really looks great. I get a lot of compliments (from here) on my writing. I think it is really pretty easy.
I just tried the pin prick method that merissa described and that worked great for me. I always had a problem with writing. You can see the difference between the "Congrats" on my purple daisy cake (free hand) vs. the CCCs (used pin prick for those).
I'm so glad to hear that I am not the only one with bad writing! I have always used the letter press sets and they work well for me. By just practicing with these, I have already gotten much better. Also, another fun way for lettering is to use the alphabet cutters to cut out fondant letters and place on your cake. I have also seen some large block type letters filled with stars and whatnot. These would work for fun cakes, not necessarily every cake.
also with the Royal Icing method you can do it by writing the letters backwards and transferring them on to the cake ( like you would a FBCT) instead of taking each letter off one by one. Does that make sense? There's a website that shows the demo on this.
Its sugarbuzz.com you can find it under "How'd they do that?"
There's a website that shows the demo on this.
Its sugarbuzz.com you can find it under "How'd they do that?"
K I must have found a different sugarbuzz because the site I went to has no 'how'd they do that'- rather an irritating site actually LOL
For sheet cakes or larger cakes I use the piping gel technique.
1)I either print the wording out (bold) on my computer, or hand write it using a marker.
2)Turn the paper over- the marker/print shows through.
3)Lightly oil the waxed ( or parchment) paper.
4)Write message (backwards) in clear piping gel onto the waxed paper.
5)Invert paper and gently press onto the cake. Rub over each letter to transfer the gel.
6)Carefully peel paper off.
7)Pipe over the gel with your icing.
Never have had a problem with the gel mixing with the icing, because the gel flattens & is just barely shiney, not thick & gooey. The only problem I've had is if using an icing that doesn't crust over, make sure the cake/icing is well chilled and firm. If not, the waxed paper can stick to the icing and leave a real mess.
I love the letter presses! I've even bought a set of scrolls and vines. These work great on small cakes & for typical messages. ex: I find that after 'tracing' "Happy Birthady" that I'm in the groove and able to free hand the person's name without trouble. I do use a small ruler to make a slight indent to mark where to start & to keep the name level.
I LOVE THE LASER LEVEL IDEA!!!!!!!!
You are brilliant! I bought one for hubby last Christmas & he's barely used it- I'm taking it back! Maybe I'll share! 
There's a website that shows the demo on this.
Its sugarbuzz.com you can find it under "How'd they do that?"
K I must have found a different sugarbuzz because the site I went to has no 'how'd they do that'- rather an irritating site actually LOL
sorry, wrong web address. Here it is (and I can only imagine what you found on the other site. 
)
http://www.sugarbuzz.us/index.php?
I have a couple of questions...
With the royal icing letters-do they adhere to the icing well? If they are dry and the icing is dry I am wondering if they will not stick well. I do the same method but use candy melts and have found just pressing them into the icing can cause them to tip one way or the other??? UG!
Also LOVE the idea of the laser level. I have not seen one, so forgive if this is a silly question! The cake top is at least 2" above the top of the table-if the level sits on the table, how do you elevate it to the height of the cake without holding it??
Thank you!!!
LOL Mom, no it wasnt porn or anything HAHAHA, I sort of had a FEELING the extension was the reason but I was feeling rather lazy and didnt feel like trying out different ones LOL but it was some site selling candy and fridge magnets and tshirts or something lol no biggy
and now it's my bed time but I have the new one bookmarked- thanks for posting it Always good to have a sizeable resource folder lol
I like the clear gel idea- will try that when I do my next MMF covered cake. Not having much luck with my BC- they are not crusting- ok ok so the disgusting mess otherwise known as my mom's bday cake was not a 'pure' crusting BC recipe- that's where I added blackberry juice to try and flavour it HAHAHA . (roll eyes here at that stupidity)- anyway - I have to experiment more with BC recipes - cause yeah, I tried smoothing my mom's cake with wax paper and paper towel and it all stuck to them ) EWWWW GRRR
oh and when I spent my 90 bucks at the cake store in the BIG CITY last week YAY, I bought a letter press- gonna try that too LOL (like a kid in the candy store I was hee hee)
[quote="sugarspice"]I have a couple of questions...
With the royal icing letters-do they adhere to the icing well? If they are dry and the icing is dry I am wondering if they will not stick well. I do the same method but use candy melts and have found just pressing them into the icing can cause them to tip one way or the other??? UG!
quote]
i usually just use a few dots of royal icing on the back of them (just tiny dots) and stick them on!
Quote by @%username% on %date%
%body%