I was doing the basket weave on my cake, First timer, and my fosting was not smooth...it was kind of cracking, and didn't have the professional looking finish i was hoping for. In fact, I have a problem with all my piping tequniques. I thought i had thinned out my frosting enough (wilton recipe) and I was wondering how come it is not coming out smooth.

I when I am finishing my frosing, I put my kitchaid on a med high setting. too much air? should i put it on a really low settng? should I ditch the wilton recipe and use a different recipe?
thanks guys!

ditch it!!! try italian meringue buttercream. It's so good!

Meringue buttercreams will be much smoother (and tastier!), but if you want to stick with the Wilton "buttercream" make sure you are sifting the powdered sugar and try adding some corn syrup. It sounds like the icing is too stiff (you probably have it at a greast consistency for roses) for the work you trying to do.

what do you mean by "not smooth"? Basketweave usually uses a ridged tip and isn't smooth.

I mix my BC on low, med and high, for short and for long periods. The longer I mix it, the smoother it gets.

what i mean by not smooth is that when i pipe the basket weave, the ridges, are cracked looking.

Oh, I understand now! Sorry 'bout that confusion!

Its all good!

I seem to have the same problem. I'm not sure if I'm using the right consistency for the basketweave. I'm always afraid to make it too thin for fear that it won't stick to the sides of the cake.

Sounds like it's too stiff. Try indydebi's recipe, you'll love it!

I have that same problem with with the Wilton recipe "buttercream" so I used mostly fondant on my cakes.

stephaniescakesnj - do you have a particular recipe that you use?
I want to change recipes so that I can start doing better buttercream cakes.