Piping. Every beginner cake decorator’s nightmare. From starting too far over on the cake and not being able to finish your word (“Happy Birth”, anyone?) to trying to pipe down the side of a cake, piping can frustrate even the calmest of souls.
I once saw the lovely Mich Turner do an ‘easy piping’ session on TV. She was making miniature wedding cakes (i.e. the sort that each guest has to themselves) and showing how simple it was to pipe 3 colours down the side of each cake.
With 2 millimetres between each colour.
With no margin for error.
Easy peasy lemon squeezy? I don’t think so! But it did showcase how amazing her talents were; perhaps that was the point – give it a go yourself, realise you’ve failed miserably, and then rush to Mich to get her to do the cakes. Quids in.
piped cakeObviously, I’ve learned how to pipe over the years. A few months back I was asked to do the cake for Perfect Wedding magazine’s 100th issue, and I came up with this one. It was great fun but I realised afterwards I’d started taking for granted my talents (“Oh no, really, it was easy!”). Hmmm. Clearly I needed to remind myself of the decorating journey I’d taken.
So when I put together a set of decorating videos recently, I decided piping was an important one to tackle, and to start off with tips for anyone who’s never picked up an icing bag.
The videos will be out soon but here’s a taster advert (with piping included). Enjoy!