I'm doing a wedding cake with scroll work this weekend. And I'm trying to perfect the buttercream that I'm using for the piping. I want something that will be easy to remove from the cake if I mess up, something i can lift off with a toothpick. Should I add karo syrup to the buttercream? Or will that make it not stay on the cake? Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated! Thanks!

What type of buttercream are you using? I haven't done much scroll work, but I have added piping gel to add elasticity and it helped a lot.

I was planning on using an all shortening buttercream, but i'm flexible. I can use all butter or a combo... that's what i'm wanting to know.. which buttercream is the best for this kind of thing?

All shortening would work the best. It will be much smoother than if you use any butter.

Another thing to consider is not beating the buttercream too much. It will add air bubbles and cause your icing to come out of the icing tip with little dents in it where the air bubble popped. If that happens, you should be able to take a damp paint brush with really soft bristles (dedicated for cake use only) and smooth out any air bubble pockets. HTH! Personally, I like to do scrollwork with royal, but I would think a crusting buttercream would work better if you want to be able to lift off mistakes.

I did one last weekend. I just added some corn syrup to my all crisco buttercream and mixed on low for a bit. Came out great. If you mess up - as long as your base icing has crusted - you will be able to lift it off with a toothpick. Only time that might be a problem is if your piping is a different color.

leckieanne yes! that was what i was thinking. i heard that that was good to use. Did you have a problem with the piping not sticking to the cake?

I will be using a white crusting buttercream with navy blue piping!!! yikes! every mistake will show up..