I need help/advice.........anything...........I am going to be doing a cake
(a semi truck cake) next weekend; and I need to pipe some writing on the side of the truck.............my question is, would it be better to use royal icing or colored piping gel? I have ordered some of the mini pastry bags, and hopefully this will help too.
So what do you do to get the best results?

Thanks!
Susan

Personally I've always used the same buttercream that I've used to frost the cake, and a real steady hand.

Here's a bump. My piping is horrible and I can't imagine trying to pipe on the side of a cake.

I find the piping gel a little runny for the sides of a cake. I'm with kellbell22....I also use my regular buttercream. Royal Icing would also be perfect.

I made one a few months ago and I used regular royal icing. It stayed attached to the fondant I used. However, it ended up being what I thought was a Cake Disaster. It was my second ever sculpted cake and second ever to use fondant. I used two loaf pans to make my tanker and it just looked horrible to me. Luckily it was for my step-dad and he was just happy that I made it.

Have you considered the pin prick method for writing on the side of the truck? Simply use b/c or ri.

I've used it on different things and was very happy with the results. Just a suggestion.

I write on the sides all the time. Just get to eye-level and do it. I use the same bc I normally do with all other writing. K'ly

I had to do this recently. I covered part of a cake dummy with Glad press'n seal and practiced for a bit first. I got down eye level with a cake and used a parchment bag, which gave me better control.

UGhh I'm so bad about pipping on sides too.....I once did a carved thomas the train cake formmy little nephew (who loved the cake because he was only turning 3 yrs. old and at that age any cake looks good I guess LOL) .....anyway I loved everything about the cake, I was really proud of it until I had to pipe the lines and details onto the sides....UGH UGH It turned out to be a diseaster!!!! I told my self if I ever do a cake that needs pipping on the sides i'm going to have to use RI! That's what I hate about myself is that my hands are not stedy enough I guess plus I live in KY and it was summer so the BC was too soft.....hot hands etc. ugh I cringe just thinking about that cake.

I use BC for everything. Not sure what RI is actually used for because I never use it for anything on a cake. I use BC for borders, flowers, writing, stringwork ... everything.