I have a client who wants a 2 tier fondant covered cake covered in Ivory fondant and chocolate brown colored scroll work. I do not do alot of "fancy" cakes and have never done scroll work. I stink at writing on cakes and this one makes me nervous. The last thing I want to give her is something with shakey scroll work. Not to mention it is for this Friday so I need to give her an answer right away. Can anyone give me some pointers on doing scroll work? I can practice on a flat surface but doing th side of a cake EEEEEEKKKKK! I need to know the consistancy of the icing, tip size all the important stuff. TIA!

Not that mine are perfect or anything but I will take a toothpick and draw the design in the icing first on buttercream cakes but since you are doing a fondant cake maybe you could make your scrolls out of fondant and then apply them to the cake?I've seen a few that looked like they may have also been made from chocolate.HTH Good luck!

I have seen it posted to print out the pattern and move your bag over it unil you feel comfortable. You can use the Chocolate Ganache 1 recipe for the chocolate piping

Any pointers on the consistency and size tips?
I have a couple of patterns that were posted.
Still makes me VERY nervous. I sooo badly want to call her and ask her to choose something else. BUT I also want to push myself. When I look at the photos I have saved a HUGE percentage of them are all scroll work because I love the way it looks.

you can also get impression mats that are scrolly - so if you had one locally, or can get fast delivery, that might help.
xx

I am new to decorating but pulled off some nice scrollwork by using the pattern presses. They are like plastic cookie cutters in scroll shapes that you press into the cake. Then you just trace over them. It kept my pattern the same each time and made it turn out much better then I ever could have done freehand. My tilting turntable was a big help too. Check out the bottom tier of my wedding cake pic if you're interested in what the pattern looks like.

I took at class with Norm David at the ICES conference. Believe it or not, he uses canned Pillsbury dark fudge frosting to do all his chocolate brown scrollwork. He said the consistency is perfect and he never uses anything else on his cakes.
I tried it and it just pipes beautifully! I think a 2 or 3 is perfect for scrollwork. Just remember, C's and S's!

Jodie

The scroll presses by Wilton are easy to use. You could change the direction of the presses or keep them in the same direction when you are applying them on the cake. I also use the ready made chocolate frosting for dark brown scroll work, its a lot quicker and easier then . Instead of doing a continuous line for your scrolls you could pipe little dots side by side. Its more time consuming but it gives you the same look. It evens looks a little like embroidery work.

Thanks so much for the info everyone. The cake she sent me a picture of is mostly s's with curly ends. I have a good friend who is amazing at cakes and I think I am going to take the cake up to her shop and she is going to coach me through it. It just so happens that I have a brand new can of pillsburry chocolate fudge that I opened yesterday to put on a brownie and changed my mind (It is still my personal favorite when I really want chocolate) so that is easy enough. Again, thanks and I will post a picture when it is complete (might depend on the final product lol).

AAAAARRRGGGGHHHHH!!!!!
I HATE SCROLL WORK!!!!!!
Now that it is out of my system, I really need some tips and encouragement. I have the choclate fudge frosting in a bag with a #3 tip and I am practiving on the side of a fondant tub. I cant figure out the best way or angle to hold my bag. Also, do I keep the tip on the cake or slightly away from it? If I hold it to far the icing drapes then falls akwardly. If I keep it on the cake I put a furough in the scroll. I soooooo do not want to ruin this cake. It has allready given me trouble with the fondant and I never have problems there. PLEASE HELP!

Not sure if you still need this, but when I was watching amazing wedding cakes last week or so and they propped the cake up on a folded towel so that it was sorta at an angle.

Another thing you could do next time is draw your design on paper then place glass over it and pipe it with royal. When it dries, just press into the icing and you have your pattern on the cake. I had a piece of glass cut just to fit the height of my cakes.

Hope that helps

For those that helped thanks so much. I took the cake to my mentor and she gave me ALOT of tips. I posted them on a thread earlier for someone looking for help with almost the exact same cake as I had to do. My cake turned out really pretty and I am getting better at the piping. I practice on the side of a small 2 gallon plastic bucket which is perfect for a cake dummy. I will post a pic soon.

Here is the final cake.

Nice job You might want to try a small parchment bag. For small intricate work they seem to have the best control.

Mike

great job!

Great job, much better than mine!!! I suck at scrolls!

Scroll work is all about letting your hand free and loose.
Take paper and pencil, and practice practice practice, if your hand is confident on paper, it will be also in BC.
Its all about Cs And Ss. I like mine very close together.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/theartdream/page7/
this is a great artist to inspire your scroll

I actually really like scrollwork. Although I will be the first to admit that I'm better at copying than going on my own. I usually find a good scrollwork cake photo, then copy the design "freehand" on a cake. Don't pipe too slowly---surprisingly, it's actually easier when you pipe faster.

Nice job beeboos! So,did you use the canned frosting?It does seem like that would be a good consitency for scroll work and if you needed brown you wouldn't have to worry about mixing your icicng to death to get the right color.

You did wonderful...I think scroll work is like learning to write. It takes practice. Eventually it gets easier and you will find out is better to do freehanded than to try to follow a pattern that is already there.
Edna

Thanks! I wish there had been this much response before I did the cake. Yes I used the betty crocker dark chocolate fudge frosting. My friend who coached me said that she felt it was a bit sticky for her taste but I dont know any difference so it worked out for me. I think practicing on the side of the 2 lb bucket was a really good idea since it was vertical. Then I just scrapped it off and did some more. AND I could eat the errors lol. I agree with Edna that trying to copy a pattern was much more difficult but watching my friend gave me more of an idea as to the angle of the bag, how close to hold it and the speed to go at. Anyway, at least I wont freeze up the next time someone asks me to do a cake with scroll work on it.

***If you wan to see some AMAZING piping skills check out cakewrecks sunday sweets. There are some jaw droping skills posted.