Look at the Spongebob/Bratz cake in my photos and tell me why it looks like a 3 year old mentally challenged monkey wrote the caption!! I have beautiful handwriting in 'real life' on paper... why can't I get it to carry over on my cakes? That is my weakest point in decorating... any tips from others? (Yes, I have those imprint letter thingies, but sometimes they don't fit on the cake, like when the saying is too long. Or if I'm too lazy to get them out of the cake room!! *the horrible truth comes out*) HELP!!
I tink you are being to hard on your self I dont think it lookd that bad.
One thing that has helped me is practice! Get a cake board, cover it w/ plastic and just write, write, write. Then scrape it off and write some more! Great way to use up leftover colors.
The other thing that is important (for me anyway) is to make sure you thin your icing a little. You don't want it runny, but you want it to "flow" so it will write smoothly.
I have the same problem, and do a lot of lettering in royal icing on plastic, then move it to the finished cake.
Are you moving your arm or your wrist? You are "supposed" to write on cakes with your arm, keeping your wrist straight and still. Just a tip, if you aren't already.
As a fellow bad writer I can relate. I tend to print out what I want to write on my computer using simple fonts. I seem to be able to follow that easier then going it on my own. If I chose a fancier font I will try to trace it on. Most people don't seem to mind my chicken scratch too much.
hmmmm --- and it's just the opposite for me.
illegible in real life -- decent (tho' not great) on cakes.
could it be the difference between fine motor skills (writing on paper) and gross motor skills (writing on a cake)???
use itty bitty finger motions to write on paper -- use whole arm for cake.
research has shown this is one reasons boys in elem school have such difficulty w/ writing -- they excel at gross motor and are challenged in fine motor--- just the opposite of girls.
but I bet you can pipe all kinds of tiny details (like those swiss dots) fairly easily (fine motor) but that drives me NUTS
of course could just "paint on" the message w/ food color or do fondant cutouts!
----
then again there's what I got sick and tired of hearing and my teachers got tired of saying ---- practice! --- (and finally one teacher just told my parents to "buy this kid a typewriter!)
THAT'S IT!!!! -- we need to invent a cake typewriter!!!!
I have the same problem. I make a cake that looks pretty decent, then ruin it with my writing. uggggghhhh!!!
What I've started to do is print out my message on my computer, then cut it out and do the pinhole method. Also, instead of holding my bag away from the cake, I pipe as close as I can to the cake, like practically touching. Seems I have more control that way. The last couple of cakes I did with writing (girls vn and book cake), I wrote in the icing color first, then used the contrasting color to write over it again. Seems to have helped again. I just don't have the patience to practice writing so I try to find shortcuts.
I have that imprinter thingy too but I don't find it that helpful though.
I don't think your writing is so bad though. We are our own worst critics for sure!
One thing I did notice about your cakes Mel is .....
the icing is Soooooooo Smooth!!!!! (lol)
-anyway..hope that helped some.
-Rezzy
Royal icing writing, then move it to the cake... brilliant!! I like it!
I do practice (on my hand) and it looks great (until I lick it off) but something about the angle of hanging over the cake, I get shaky and screw it up!
But thank you for the ego boost in saying it wasn't that bad heavenscent!!
Edited to add: Man o man, a bunch of replies came while I was typing that! 
Thanks for your support guys/gals! Yes, I am good at the fine motor skills, but Doug, I guess I'm not as gross as you! Hahahah! Bless your heart! And Rezzy... my cakes are smooth? Hahahah, who'da thunkit? Actually, they aren't as smooth as some people who have adopted my method! I am jealous of some people!
I don't know if I can explain this right but....
When I was younger and worked at a bakery, the dear soul who owned it made little parchment icing triangles and taught me to use my hand to apply pressure and to hold my wrist with my left hand to apply the motion. It helps with the control on the tip and shakiness.
I have done this ever since and I don't do too bad. We used to practice on the counter there and scraped the icing off... miss those days.
I think it's sorta like when you paint, I was taught to use my pinky like a "kickstand" - use my thumb, finger, and middle finger to detail paint and my pinky on the object as support.
If you support the hand it will help.
This sounds goofy I think, I should quit while I am ahead. lol
I think your writing looks fine 
I have horrible handwriting in person and on cakes, so I started doing the royal icing letters. But sometimes, it would be a pain because I would have to mix up RI and a lot of times I would have to pipe out what I was going to say a few times because some would always break..but then I discovered using chocolate!!
I've been doing a lot of CTs so I always have candy melts or almond bark around and all it takes is just a little bit of chocolate. I print out the font and size I want to use cover with wax paper and just copy with chocolate. I wait about 10-15 minutes and it's hard and ready to go, and the letters hardly ever break! Then I just use my cake tweezers and place on the cake.
Maybe you would want to try that. It saves me so much time because I used to have to re ice my cakes a million times becuase I would hate how my wriiting looked But really, I think yours is great, but if you want to lessen your stress level a little, you might want to try it! Hope I've helped
Val- That makes total sense!! Thanks for the info!!
And Heiser... any time you can add chocolate to something, it's a bonus! I will have to try that! I agree that I'd hate to whip up a batch of RI just to write on a cake. I admit I don't like the taste of RI in the least!
Writing on cakes is also my downfall. I have just bought some remarkable cutters for this & I also found that the idea of printing whatever it is you want from the computer, the covering it with parchment paper & writing with royal icing & leaving it to dry. then moving it onto the cake works very well.I think it is a hang up I have, if I know I am doing it onto the cake, I go to pieces.
Whenever I can, I use a fondant scroll and write on it with my food markers. My handwriting is normally just fine until I try to do it with icing on a cake.
I can't find any food markers that work!! Ahhh! Any that I've tried don't write well. They skip and go dry in the middle of a letter, etc. It really irks me! That's a whole other thread! I wish they worked like they make it look! The Wilton ones are crap, that's for sure!
hmm, Mine work just fine. Maybe try lightly wetting the tip before using? They are fabulous on the scrolls.
I am like Doug. I have THE MORE HORRID chicken scratch when I write with a pen, but I can write on cakes quite decently.
At the bakery barely any of the sales people can write on cakes decently, so it was/is up to me to do the cakes. My boss has informed me that once I come back my first task will be to teach EVERYONE how to write on cakes. I think the biggest problems they are having are converting the fine movement into a gross movement, and also with pressure control.
I am going to print out two pages of the alphabet, one with lower and up script writing. The other with lower and upper block writing. I am going to sandwich those puppies between page protectors and make everyone practice on them until they get it right.
I know its the same concept as practice boards, but maybe that can help you.
Carla
What a great thread! I'm so glad you asked this question- I've gotten lots of ideas!
What I've done in the past is-
1) Measure the area on the cake.
2) Create the text on my computer and print it out as a "mirror image."
3) Cover it with wax paper and "trace" it with clear piping gel.
4) Turn the wax paper over onto the surface of the cake, so that the piping gel tranfers.
5) Go over the clear gel with my colored icing.
It's a little too much work for me- I LOVE the chocolate idea!! 
I don't know if I can explain this right but....
When I was younger and worked at a bakery, the dear soul who owned it made little parchment icing triangles and taught me to use my hand to apply pressure and to hold my wrist with my left hand to apply the motion. It helps with the control on the tip and shakiness.
I learned the same things, I also practice not just on a board but on plastic container so that it feels more like a cake.
I think to add to Doug's explainations - which makes a lot of sense to me.
That if you are mentally thinking about it, you just take more time and you just psych yourself out. I do this all the time.
When I am ready to to the writing. I dont have those letters, but I go to my computer, and I use a program that allowes the printout to be rounded and the size I need and then I cut it and place it on the cake, I dot the spots where the letters should start and I keep my paper just above where I want to write so that I can see what he letter is suppose to look like.
Of course I always feel that for the cakes for me, the writing is fine, but when I do it for someone else it's like I used my left hand and closed my eyes. Oh well.
Good Luck.
Whenever I can, I use a fondant scroll and write on it with my food markers. My handwriting is normally just fine until I try to do it with icing on a cake.
I have never tried food markers. Is there a certain brand decorators recommend? My writing on cakes is 
but I'll just keep practicing.
Melvira you make such GREAT cakes and your METHOD is awesome...You can't be GREAT or AWESOME at every thing And you if get GREAT at writing you will have it all covered!!! Anyways I watch peoples cakes on here for their writing....and I will tell you Cakery and Jenncowin have the prettiest handwriting done on cakes that I have ever seen...and both of them say PRACTICE PRACTICE PRACTICE, it seems though when I try to write pretty it is a great big huge flop!!! BUT....when I just write like I am in a hurry it is better. I guess they are right ...just practice. I would much rather have a persons handwriting though instead of the traceable things, just because they don't look as pretty (IMO) . Even if the writing is not perfect, I'd rather see yours then a imprint of Wiltons. (please nobody jump me this is just my opinion 
)
I have the worst time writting on my cakes. I can't get it straight or big enough. I write small on paper. I don't have much spare time to practice either, so I always depend on those letter press things. Oh how I would love to be able to write good enough.
I use chocolate a lot as well. BUT, in the form of molds! I have a couple of alphabet molds; old english and block. They work GREAT (John Deere Cake in my photos) . I also use cookie cutter letters I got like 75% off from Wilton. I'm not a cookie person, but, I DO use them to cut out fondant OR just make an outline. Works really well for informal, fun cakes.
Beth in KY
HI,
I also have very bad handwriting. I work in a small Bakery and I'm lucky since they have a kopykake machine. It' like an overhead machine that shines designs onto the cake to trace. Well I just print out the sayings on my computer and print them out. Then I stick them in the kopykake machine and just trace the lettering.
Wilton makes food writers in various colors.
Melvira, I would practice by hand writing out the phrases on paper and covering them with contact paper (you can also laminate them) so there reusable. I would then place the the practice sheet on top of the cake pan to get the "feel" of writing on a real cake.
And as so many others have said, just keep practicing!
Good Luck!
save. i don't have time to read the whole thing, but i can't write on cake to save my life. i will be back to check out the tips
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