Piping Swag Decoration

(lighthearted music)

Hi, I'm gonna demonstrate a do-it-yourself wedding cake.

So now we've got our cake all assembled

and we've got the teardrops between each tier

to make a nice close to seam.

Now it's time to decorate.

So we're gonna put some swags draping along the sides.

So before we start, we just have to measure that out.

You don't actually need to use a ruler here,

although you can if you're careful,

but it's almost better to eye it at this point

because you don't want to make any marks

on the finished frosting.

So I'm just gonna start really anywhere

as a starting point and put a dot.

These dots are not gonna wind up showing at the end.

The flower's gonna go on top.

But we're just using it to mark.

So go directly across from that for your other one

and then just turn it slightly

and center between the two

and then down here.

On the next tier, I'm going to do the same thing,

but I'm gonna offset it in between the two dots.

So the first dot will be right there in the middle.

So I'm gonna start always working in front of myself.

Right there.

So I'm just marking this tier into quadrants

using these two dots as a guide.

Center of that one goes straight down.

There.

And again, center of that, go straight down.

There.

So you can see already it's nice and even.

Now I'm gonna go do that again on the bottom tier.

Use the top as a guide or between these two here

and that would be there.

So we have dots here, in the center, and then again here.

12 o'clock, six o'clock, three o'clock and nine o'clock

on each tier.

Turn 45 degrees for the next tier

and then back for the next tier.

Now we're almost done measuring.

The last part you actually have to

really be careful measure is the point,

the lowest point of this swag.

I find the easiest way to do this is

I use my knuckle of my thumb

and I'm gonna use this as a guide,

this bottom dot here as a guide

and almost touch, put the bag right at the bend of my thumb

and put a dot there.

So if you don't like any of the dots that you've made

and your cake is cold, you can easily scrape it off.

But the cake needs to be cold

otherwise it's a little more difficult

and then just go right over it.

Don't worry if there's a very minor flaw.

You won't notice it when the cake is finished.

So when I'm ready to do my swags,

these are the two points I'm gonna connect.

Just remember that you're gonna keep it on a curve

and just space them evenly apart

and make sure the dots are the same size as each other.

And when we go up the other way, same thing,

keep it in front of you so you can see your curve.

So when you do this tier,

you're just gonna open the angle a little bit.

I'm just connecting the dots.

Okay.

Again, up.