By Pressure Control
Icing consistency, correct bag position and pressure control are essential when it comes to decorating your cake with icing. If the consistency of your icing isn’t just right, your decorations won’t be right either. Just a few drops of liquid will make a great deal of difference in your results.
Stiff icing holds a 3/4-inch peak on the spatula. It is best used for flowers with upright petals - if icing is not stiff enough, your petals will drop.
Medium icing is used for flowers with flat petals and for borders. When the icing is too stiff or too thin, you can’t get the uniform designs that characterize a perfect border.
Thin icing is used for writing, stems, leaves and for frosting a cake.
The way your decorations curl and point also depends on the way you hold the bag and the way you move it. There are two basic positions: a 90-degree angle, or perpendicular to the surface. This angle is used when making stars or flat flowers.
Holding the bag at a 45-degree angle, or halfway between vertical and horizontal, is good for writing and borders.
The angle in relation to the work surface is only half the story on a bag position. The other half is the direction in which the back of the bag is pointed.
When you hold the bag at a 45 angle to the surface, you can sweep out a circle with the back end of the bag by rolling your wrist and holding the end of the tip in the same spot. (If you do not have a bag, try it with a pencil).
Pretend that the circle you formed in the air is a clock face.
The hours of the clock face correspond to the direction you should point the back end of the bag.
The size and uniformity of your icing design are affected by the amount of pressure you apply to the bag and the steadiness of the pressure - how you squeeze and relax your grip on the decorating bag.
Your goal is to learn to apply pressure so consistently that you can move the bag in a free and easy glide while just the right amount of icing flows through the tip.
Practice will achieve this control.
-courtesyof Wilton.com
