Ok having a bit of trouble getting my royal icing lines piped nice and straight in vertical lines from the top over the sides of the cake - ala Mitch Turner in Spectacular cakes. Not doing as many as those but when they go a bit 'wobbly' they look awful. Any tips please? ie. top to bottom or visa versa?

my tip use fondant stripes much easier to work with then piping

Don't go slow and let the icing flow and attach at the bottom. The faster you go the better it will look.

lightly mark the icing with the edge of a spatula or ruler, if you have trouble keeping the lines straight. Then pipe from the bottom to the top- that always seems to work best for me!

what about using a piece of uncooked spagetti to lightly impress on the sides? it might help until you get into the flow and have more confidance

Ok bottom to top seems better but do you have the icing tip close to the side and sort of 'draw' it up the cake or hold the tip out from the cake a bit and squeeze the bag to form a line of icing and then 'lay' this onto the cake? Am I making any sense here?

Ok bottom to top seems better but do you have the icing tip close to the side and sort of 'draw' it up the cake or hold the tip out from the cake a bit and squeeze the bag to form a line of icing and then 'lay' this onto the cake? Am I making any sense here?

Thanks everyone...I have another question though. If you use the mat, how do you prevent your buttercream from just globing onto the mat? I'm afraid to smooth out my cake and then have the mat pull all the BC off.

I do like the spaghetti idea though.

Um....oops. This is what I get for having two browsers open with Cake Central. Thought I was posting to a different thread...also had spaghetti in it so wasn't too far off. Doh!

Always bottom to top!!!! Don't "draw" the line on the cake. Don't touch the tip to the cake. Attach at bottom and gently squeeze out a line of icing as you are pulling up (slightly away from side) to the top. Gently guide the line of icing over the edge to center making sure to keep steady as it is easy to go at an angle once you go on to the top of the cake.


Amy