I am doing an anniversary cake for a friend and I am wondering is it better to do cornelli lace in royal icing or buttercream. I have only done it in my Wilton class and haven't done it since but I love the look of it. Any tips for cornelli lace would also be appreciated!

Thanks!
Mgcmom

I would love to know the answer to this as well. I am doing a cake in July and was planning on doing on buttercream. I have only done in class as well. If I remember correctly we added something to the icing to make it stronger.

I've just used my regular buttercream, as long as it isn't too thick. That's what I used on this one: http://cakecentral.com/gallery/1465731
HTH

I agree with using buttercream that isn't stiff. It really needs to be able to flow so that you get that continuous line.

Thanks! I was thinking buttercream would be easiest and would taste good. I don't know if it matters that I am putting it on fondant, and maybe it should be royal icing???? Thinned out of course to make it easier to pipe.

Thanks!
B.

I've used both royal and butter cream for cornelli lace, and they both worked just fine. I've thinned down my butter cream with some clear corn syrup to provide more elasticity to my lace work, but since I have really hot hands, I now just hold the icing bag for a while and let the heat from my hands thin it down and don't bother with the corn syrup.

For some reason, I prefer to use royal on fondant and butter cream on butter cream, but don't ask me why.

Wilton has a recipe for fluffly boiled icing that I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE using for string work and lacing details. It's nice and thin but dries semi hard (but not crunchy). It's perfect for this work. The process for making is very similar to SMBC. Recipe is below.... I hope you give it a try. It's super easy to work with and does string work so nicely. FYI, it makes a fairly large amount. I have cut in half before without any problems; or sometimes, I use the leftover and make a buttercream with it. Hope you enjoy!

Meringue:
1/2 cup cold water
3 tbls meringue powder (I use egg whites instead of powder)

Syrup:
2 cups sugar
1/4 c corn syrup
1/2 c water

Beat meringue to stiff peaks. Heat all syrup ingredients in microwave until it reaches boil (@ 5 mins). Remove from micro and when boiling stops slowy add to meringue while beating on low. Beat on high for @ 4 minutes until stiff and glossy.

I agree with the previous post that the boiled icing works well with cornelli lace. However, if you don't feel like making another batch of icing, you can add clear piping gel or corn syrup to thin down your buttercream or royal icing. By adding this to your icing you will give it some stretch and it should prevent it from cracking. I add about 1 teaspoon to about 1 cup of icing. I also add clear piping gel to my royal icing when I am making lilies. It gives the lilies a nice point to the tip of each petal.

I love the look of cornelli lace. I saw a tv show where they ran there royal icing threw a panty hose and squezze it threw. She called it "liquid gold" LOL but it works great.... don't overthink it's kind of like scribble work just let it flow and never overlap lines.

Thanks! I think I will just add corn syrup or piping gel to my buttercream and do it that way. I don't have enough time to experiment with something new on a cake that needs to be done by Saturday. Thanks for the idea of the boiled icing. I will try that another time and compare.