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Happy Birthday, Congratulations, and other such sentiments are popular on frosted cakes, but a poorly executed message can mangle an otherwise beautifully decorated cake. Practice is important when it comes to lettering and scripting in frosting.
 | Use the different sizes of round tips, like #1 to #12, to get a feel for the size and thickness of letters they produce. When you practice, don't be afraid to play around a bit and try block letters and cursive. If you're feeling particularly adventurous, tip #44 is a great choice for calligraphy-style scripting. If you're struggling with different writing styles, surf the Internet for calligraphy examples or pick up an instructional book on calligraphy at your local library and practice writing in different ways before you try piping. |
When you feel comfortable enough to try writing on a cake, decide what you're going to write before you take the tip to the surface! Don't wait until you have frosting coming out of your pastry bag to choose your words — you're likely to end up with a squiggly mess or misspelled words. Also, the number of letters or words you're putting on a cake dictates the size of the tip you use; if you're just scripting initials or a short message, you can use a large tip, but if you have a lot of words to fit on the cake, a small tip is best.
Follow these guidelines for turning your words into a frosting message:
- For scripting, use buttercream or stiff decorator frosting. Both are smooth and firm enough to produce crisp letters.
- On a cake that has been crumb coated, frosted, and refrigerated, use a toothpick or bamboo skewer to sketch out the message. Don't bear down too hard; you're just blocking out where your letters will appear. If you make a mistake, frost the cake again, refrigerate it, and start over.
- Don't put too much frosting in the pastry bag — stick with about 2/3 cup. And before you start scripting on the cake, test the frosting's consistency by piping a few letters or words on a piece of wax paper.
- Make sure that the cake you're scripting on is placed straight on the table or work surface. If it's slanted, your writing may end up slanted, too.
- If you're unhappy with the way your writing looks, lift it off the surface of the cake delicately with a toothpick or bamboo skewer, and begin again. (It's particularly easy to lift your lettering off the cake if the cake has been refrigerated and the frosting is cold.)
| When you make frosting for lettering and scripting, it's important to sift the confectioners' sugar thoroughly. Little balls of sugar in the frosting can clog up the pastry bag as you pipe, and although you can usually remove or break up the clog with a toothpick, the flow of your scripting will have already been interrupted. Unlike some decorations, it's hard to hide mistakes in writing. |
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