My mom has been a source of encouragement to me as I continue to improve my decorating abilities. Her birthday is May 1st, and I want to make her a surprise cake that will show her how much I appreciate her. She LOVES the Phantom of the Opera, therefore the design I have in mind is a 2 tier cake, covered in black fondant. I am making a red rose and the phantom's mask to lay on the top teir, and my intention is to have a music staff wrapping around (and down) the sides of the cake. (my mom reads music, so I am going to use the actual notes from the title song).

My piping skills still need improvement (which I know takes practice) - but since I want this to be special for my mom - does anyone have any tips on piping straight lines (not getting that "wavy" effect)?

not sure on your timing needed or money but on GSA they have this stencil for music notes and the five lines that go behind them. You could use thinned RI and trace those around all the tiers I also suffer from not being able to draw a straight line

If you're going all the way around the cake, a turntable would be helpful. Also, I have some tips with two round openings (so you can make two lines at a time, equal distances apart).

My only other thought is to put a little corn syrup in your frosting for the sake of the lines not breaking. I'm sure someone else has some better suggestions for you, though. The cake sounds really neat!

A trick that I have learned for piping straight lines on a cake is to first take floss and indent it around the cake then you can take away the floss and trace the indented line with your icing. If you want you can also have someone hold the floss on the cake for you while you take a toothpick and slightly indent the fondant where the floss is and then trace the line you made with the toothpick. Another way is to hold a ruler up to the cake vertically and mark a tiny hole with a toothpick where you want each line to start and continue doing that down the side of the cake for each line. Continue with the ruler method around the cake with each hole about 1 or 2 inches apart from each other until you have the lines as long around the cake as you want them and then pipe from hole to hole to form a straight line. I hope these tips help you. Good Luck with your piping.