Hello Kitty, Goodbye Basketweave

Did I mention that I stink at piping! If I haven’t, let me say it now. I stink at piping!

My niece had her 1st birthday the other day and I wanted to make a little cake just for her. I decided to try my hand at piping a basketweave design. But, I guess I should have practiced first because it didn’t come out exactly like I had hoped. I started by piping all the vertical stripes. Big mistake. Then I piped all the short horizontal stripes. This wouldn’t have looked so bad if I could have at least made my lines straight. But, since I stink at piping, this is what you get.

^[1]

See those horizontal stripes, they should look like they’re tucked under the vertical ones. (I’ll show you the right way in a bit).

But, if we just look at it from above, it looks pretty good. Almost straight, even.

^[2]

I do love the little Hello Kitty topper I made though.

^[3]

It was molded from rolled fondant ^[4] that was tinted with different icing colors ^[5]. The whiskers and eyes were drawn with an edible ink pen ^[6].

^[7]

Just too cute!

Now, let’s see what the birthday girl thought about my poor piping skills.

^[8]

Hmmm… she’s really thinking about it.

^[9]

Yay! I don’t think she noticed.

Want to try piping a basketweave?

Make some buttercream frosting (recipe here ^[10]). Tint it with the icing color ^[5] you want and get the following:

one decorating bag ^[11]
one coupler ^[12]
one decorating Tip #47 ^[13]

Here’s what it all looks like…

^[14]

Don’t be scared. It has teeth, but it won’t bite. Promise.
^[15]
Once your bag is ready, take a look at the diagram below. It’s from Wilton’s Course Book 2: Flowers and Borders ^[16].
It’s too bad I didn’t look at this first. Oh well… at least you guys can do a better job.

^[17]

• Basically, you pipe a vertical stripe first.
• Then pipe horizontal stripes with spacers in between to make sure your widths stay consistent.

^[18]

• Then you draw another vertical stripe covering the ends of the first set of horizontal stripes.
• Then you pipe another set of horizontal stripes. Start by burying your tip under the first vertical stripe to hide the end.
• Then you draw another vertical stripe to cover the ends of the second set of horizontal stripes.
• Take a deep breath. Take your time. Repeat.

That’s the abbreviated version. Hope the pictures help. The The Wilton Course Book ^[16] gives much better directions.

Good luck!

And if your wondering. I used the same cake and frosting recipe from here ^[10].
And rope border was made with decorating tip #21 ^[19].

 

These instructions are for your personal use only. To create Hello Kitty products for commercial sale, you must obtain permission from Sanrio. Visit http://www.sanrio.com/business opportunities/.