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Health & Fitness

Piping and the Art of Cake Decorating: Part 2

Part 2 of an article addressing basics of piping and tips for eliminating the "shaky hands syndrome" often encountered by beginner cake decorators.

Part 2 of Reducing the “shakes” when piping

Piping is an essential technique in cake decorating and one that you start using early.  One problem beginners often encounter is “shaky hands”.  It can be difficult to pipe something as simple as “Happy Birthday” on a cake if your hands shake when you pipe. The more complex piping techniques such as swags and overpiping may seem daunting, but there are some ways to reduce this common problem in cake decorating. 

Piping decorations on a cake requires lots of time, practice, patience and a very steady hand.  Piping involves muscles not usually used so practice and patience are key to developing this cake decorating skill.  As you strengthen these muscles, your steadiness will increase, allowing you the smooth movements needed to have the right touch.

You may be tempted to go slowly, but you really want to move quickly and smoothly when piping. Your hand will shake less if you move faster.

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Buttercream is smoother than royal icing and can flow more easily than royal icing although you can get a little sharper look with royal icing.   Keep the buttercream on the thin side.  This will make it easier to pipe.  Stiffer icing is harder on your muscles –you have to work harder to move the icing out of the pastry bag and that can contribute to the “shakes”.   Stick with buttercream until practiced a bit because it’s a little easier to move than royal icing.  Once you’ve conquered buttercream then move on to royal icing.

In the beginning, pipe with two hands. Your dominant hand (the one you usually write with) will be used to push and twist the frosting out, the other hand will guide the tip.  You might want just your pointer finger on the tip or just above the tip to guide.  As you gain experience, this may not be necessary.

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You may find it easier to pipe with a larger tip, especially a textured tip like the small star tip.  The texture is more forgiving of small shakiness.  As your skill and confidence grows, you can reduce the size of the tip.

As we discussed in Part 1: the basics of pastry bags, touch the tip to the cake surface at the start and the end of a letter, loop or swag, but keep the rest loose.  You do not want to be pressing on the cake at all when you’re piping unless it’s the beginning or the end of a letter or loop.  So the tip should be just above your cake surface.  Let the icing drop lightly down to the surface – let it lay itself down on the cake rather than you using the tip to touch it to the cake.  (As noted before, the exception being the beginning or end of a scroll or letter when you do press down.)  You may need to be on a step stool so that you can hover over the cake.

You can even hold the bag like a pencil – just make sure you keep the pressure full – and no air bubbles. You want to find a certain rhythm to the process which will create a smooth slow and less jerkiness.  You'll have better results if you move your whole arm, from the shoulder down and not just your hand.   Start with some figure eights to get the flow going.

To practice, use some plastic surface or cover a surface with parchment or waxed paper.  That way you can scrape off the icing and keep reusing it.  Get a picture of what you want the piping to look like – cover that with parchment or wax paper and try tracing it.  Draw some scrolls on paper and practice piping those by tracing.  The practice will give you the confidence to move faster which will make your piping go more smoothly with less shaking.

Think of everything as writing (even if you’re doing scroll work and not actually piping letters on a cake.)  If you write slowly, your hand will cramp. People with good penmanship tend to write smoothly and at a nice pace – not slowly and pinched. 

In part 1, we discussed the basics of pastry bags when piping.  You can read more about piping in the full article.  If you would like to receive more cake decorating tips, please subscribe to our Newsletter by emailing caketips@aweber.com.

Do you have any advice for your fellow bakers and cake decorators?

If so submit your cake decorating ideas, tips and techniques to breebakes@yahoo.com, or visit us on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/LearnToDecorateCakes

Like any craft, you need to use the right tools.  You may want to consider investing in a Wilton Cake Decorating Kit.

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