How Do I Make Clean Stripes That Are Smooth?
Decorating By joy1806 Updated 16 Sep 2006 , 1:20pm by hktaitai
I'm new to wedding cakes, and I am making vertical stripes on the tiered cake. I was happy that my first cake looked so simple......but I got the tools I need and practiced with icing on a board and was really shocked that there were little holes in the icing or not complete lines. I practiced for hours and never really was satisfied with the results. I have to make the cake in one week and wanted to know if any of you experienced cake people have any tips. I thought of dipping the plastic tool into hot water before making the lines. Any suggestions? 
I don't really have the answer to you problem, but the idea of heating the tool seems like good. It's certainly an easy thing to try without any waste. I heat the spatula to smooth icing so I know "hot" works wonders on the sides and tops of cakes. Good luck and enjoy the process.
It sounds like you have alot of air pockets/bubbles in your icing. Before you pipe it out, make sure that the icing is "packed" in your bag. When you're loading your bag, make sure that you place the icing as close to the bottom of the bag as possible. I usually load it down and to one side. After I'm done loading, I squeeze (the side of the icing bag) downwards and at an angle to help ensure that the icing is void of air pockets.
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