Right now, I'm trying to expand my repertoire of skills. I checked topsy-turvy off my list yesterday (yay!) and now up is scroll work. I've seen some that looks gorgeous and some that looks really sloppy...like scribbles, sort of... Anyhow, anyone have any tips or advice? Anyone have any excellent examples to show me? It will be for my mom and aunt's joint birthday so I'd like it to be nice.

One word: Practice

Good luck =]

are these the sort of scrolls you wanted to do? They are not excellent but they are the best i have done so far:

http://www.cakecentral.com/modules.php?name=gallery&file=displayimage&pid=1369023

When i did them i just made sure i had a steady hand as much as i could. On here i piped them on fondant and what is good about that is if the piping line starts to wiggle just scrape it off and start again!

I try to keep the same pressure all the way through and i try not to go to slow cose then the pipping starts to wiggle but i try not to go too fast otherwise it is a mess.

If you are doing it on buttercream maybe you can use a toothpick and draw them in the buttercream and then pipe over the lines? Otherwise i heard what alot of people do is buy an impression matt and press that in and then pipe over that.

I am no expert on scrolls and dunno if it is really helpful but yeh hopefully it is a bump for you

Oh and what Rylan said, practice lol

Practice is certainly good advice. The other thing I would suggest is that when you're piping use smooth, consisten motions. If you go too slow you will end up with bumpy frosting in your scroll work. If you practice first you will get the motions down before applying them to your cake. When I first did scrolls I used the press patterns and followed them. I soon realized I could do it faster freehand and not have lines in my frosting from where I missed the pattern.

If you don't have a Wilton practice board or practice cake handy just practice on wax or parchment paper. I've also put patterns in those clear plastic page sleeves (the ones you use for reports and stuff) Then I pipe right over the pattern on the plastic until I get the hang of it. You can put these in a cookbook stand so you can practice upright like on the side of a cake too.