ok, my best friends wedding is coming up in august, and of course im doing the cake.

she picked out a gorgeous design that is 3 tiers, on the top and botton, there is a scroll pattern all over, i think i can handle that.

the tricky part- the middle tier also has a scroll pattern, but its just a band around the center of the cake. so i was wondering what i could do so i dont just have to free hand it! im too afraid to do that and screw it up. the cake is white fondant with dark chocolate piping.

would it be possible to make a stencil and stencil it all the way around the cake with the chocolate and then go back and overpipe it? any help would be wonderful! TIA!

You could use the Wilton press set that has scrolls in it. It makes an imprint on the frosting & then you trace over it with your piping bag. Do the imprints lightly so that if you 're not happy with the way they came out, you can smooth your buttercream & start over. Once you get it right, you can pipe your chocolate on top of the imprints.

If it's a simple scroll design, you could use a pattern press set. Wilton makes two sets, I have them both and I like them.

http://www.wilton.com/store/site/product.cfm?id=3E30D891-475A-BAC0-51DF77778B7B0CDF

http://www.wilton.com/store/site/product.cfm?id=3E30D882-475A-BAC0-5D0833D2D8DFB041&fid=3E32BD9D-475A-BAC0-52F239128C2DA736

Or maybe you could do them in RI and attach them later? They would probably have to be piped onto a curved surface if the tiers are round.

thanks! i would use a pattern press, but its a specific design. : (

i guess i can just try it out and see what happens!

easy peasy You will be ok.. I take a piece of card stock.. cut to 1/2 the height of your cake... and mark lightly all the way around your cake (the mark will not show, because your scrollwork will hide it )... I hope this helps The tricky part is finding the center of your tier .. once that is found you can pretty much eyeball it

I definately would make a template line going on the cake, that way, you know just where to pipe.

Hope I was understanding what you were asking

Jen

thanks for your help!

I would say to print out, draw out, the design. Then cut it to a size that's easy to work with. If it's fondant you can probably wrap the sign around and attach the paper to itself with tape (dont tape the fondant). And then use a push pin to mark the design and go back over it with piping. The other option is piping gel, but that can get messy.

actually you can use a very low stick painters tape