This type of gorgeous, ornate and intricately piped cake has always fascinated me.  Who began piping royal icing in this style? How is it done?

Toba Garrett, author of The Well-Decorated Cake, briefly explains the origins in the following excerpt of her book (p. 66):

In the 1890’s to 1920’s, overpiping cake decorating techniques became popular.  The raised, three-dimensional decoration created cakes that resembled large Victorian vases and sculpted works of art, made famous by its best known practitioner, Joseph A. Lambeth, father of cake decorating.

Lambeth created a book on the art of cake decorating including exquisite overpiped designs, runouts, stringwork and so much more.  The book includes step-by-step photographed instructions for piping wonderful embellished borders, flowers and figures.

The original book, the Lambeth method of cake decoration and practical pastries, published in 1934, is quite extensive as it goes through multitudes of beautiful, different piping designs, but is also expensive.  Sigh.  It can be found for approximately $200 – $700, depending on the binding, edition and condition.*

Toba Garrett has a small section in her book, The Well-Decorated Cake, dedicated to describing a few key piping designs, which are beautifully illustrated and explained well.

I learn best with hands-on instruction though, so was so happy to meet Wendy Kromer at the Bonnie Gordon School in Toronto, where Wendy came to guest teach three classes; two on the Lambeth Method Piping Skills, and one on Designing with Meringue. Besides being the author of Martha Stewart’s Wedding Cakes and one of the main producers of Martha’s cakes in her magazines etc., Wendy is a lovely person and excellent teacher. I took both the Lambeth and the Meringue class and learned so much.

In Wendy’s Lambeth Method Piping Class, we learned how to pipe various delicate or intricate Lambeth designs with royal icing. Here are a few of the first examples done on cake styrofoams:

Love these royal icing loops:

It’s really amazing, what can be done with royal icing. It can be time-consuming but the results are beautiful and gratifying. I’m definitely looking forward to playing around with some of these designs on some cakes or cupcakes.

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In the second class, Designing with Meringue, we learned how to make delicious and pretty meringue decorations. I hadn’t really appreciated the taste and versatility of meringue until I took this class.

Meringue decrations can be eaten not just looked at, are relatively inexpensive to make and can be served to gluten-free clients!

One way of using meringue is to create these whimsical yet elegant ‘panels’ which will adhere to the sides of a square cake. Here are some panels before being baked (pencil marks are on the underside of the parchment paper):

And after baking:

Here’s one of Wendy’s completed meringue panel cakes which you can be found on Martha Stewart’s site:

I’d also never tried brown sugar meringue.  It’s so yummy; my mouth is seriously watering at the thought of it. In my humble opinion, it’s not as pretty as white meringue (or lightly colored meringue), but would be perfect for a neutral palette or rustic look.

Examples of the brown sugar meringue are on the bottom tier of my cake styrofoam pictured below:

This meringue flower was made by one of Bonnie Gordon’s talented instructors, Isabelle Loiacono.

I think these would be adorable on top of cupcakes! Martha Stewart’s website has some gorgeous pics of cakes made with meringue flowers. Here’s one example:

As Wendy flew up from the States to guest teach, she is not regularly scheduled at Bonnie’s school, but she is offering her own classes through her own bakery, at Wendy Kromer Specialty Confections.

If you’re in the Toronto area or would like to come visit (I’ve met people from all over the world at her school!), the Bonnie Gordon School has a unique and exceptional professional program, and so many fun part-time classes such as The Art of Sugar Blossoms, Figure Modelling, Haute Couture Cakes, Painting on Cakes and more!

{Photos from http://www.bonniegordoncakes.com/pages/classes/8speciality.htm}

If you’re interested in learning how to pipe Lambeth-style, Bonnie’s school also offers a class on the Lambeth Method, taught by the talented Isabelle Loiacono. For more info., click here.

Happy decorating!

Marian

See for yourself in these pics:

Isn’t she stunning?!  All edible!

The uber-talented cake artist, Alexandria Pellegrino, who made these three magnificent cakes (above & below) can be found at Cake Opera Co.

A few more…

The detail is extraordinary… Here’s a close-up of the hand-painted sailboats:

You can probably tell that Alexandria’s were among my faves, but there were so many other gorgeous cakes I loved. (Sorry I can’t post them all here!)

The exhibition of cakes were created by Bonnie Gordon students and alumni of the school.  This year’s main exhibition themes were Wedding Cakes and Celebration Cakes and live competitions included the Wedding Cake Competition, Cupcake Challenge and Cake Design Challenge.

Yes it’s cake!

Susan Smythe Bishop’s cake below won for the category Cake Design – Wedding Cakes.

This “fire engine” cake by Matthew Somers actually had working lights!  It won the Cake Design – Celebration Cakes category.

Jaclyn Douglas and Isabelle Loiacono, both instructors at the Bonnie Gordon School are working on their Wedding Cake Competition cake here.

Genevieve Griffin of For the Love of Cake and her teammate Patricia Rivera were also competing in the Wedding Cake Challenge.

Here’s the carnival-themed Cupcake Challenge in progress.  Check out the ferris wheel on the right which Rossana Pantaleo made to hold her cupcakes.  So cute!

The winning cupcakes were made by Catherine Chen.

Here she is (on the left), with Bonnie Gordon.

Speaking of which, it’s thanks to leading cake designer and founder of the Bonnie Gordon School, Bonnie Gordon, that this wonderful show took place.  A huge thanks to her for creating the event and for her innovative leadership in the cake community!

Having taken numerous classes at her school, I feel confident in recommending BG classes to others and am proud to have the school as a sponsor of Sweetopia!

Congrats again to all the entries and contestants; everyone did such a beautiful job! Can’t wait to see the cakes next year!

Anyways, how can you avoid icing clogging in your piping tip?

You can use squeeze bottles instead; many people swear by them, but if you want to use a smaller hole for finer details, piping or pastry tips are ideal.

I should mention that the clogging usually happens with smaller tips anyways. For example tips #000, #00 and tip#1.

I should also mention that I’ve spoken to a few people who use parchment cones (Peggy Porschen for example), who say that the clogging generally doesn’t happen with them.  I’m not a huge fan of the parchment cone though (in fact I think I’m still afraid of them), so I’m going to have to stick with piping tips.

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So, here are my top 6 tips for avoiding clogging in piping tips.

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How to Prevent Royal Icing from Clogging Your Piping Tips

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1. Use a sieve to sift your royal icing when you’re making it.

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2. If your royal icing has meringue powderor cream of tartar like one of the recipes I use (click here), make sure the little bits and balls of meringue are all dissolved before you add the icing sugar.

3.  It’s best to use fresh icing.  The longer it sits, the more time it has to separate.

The water and icing sugar separate; meaning that you can be left with a somewhat dry layer of icing sugar and a watery layer.  You’ll have to mix it up again to use it, and it’s difficult to make sure it’s perfectly smooth.

If you do end up keeping your icing for a few days or more, I’d recommend putting it back in your mixer quickly before you use it, to try and ensure all ‘lumps’ are out.

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4.  Gently paddle the icing with a spatula to ensure or double-check that all lumps or bumps are gone.  This can easily be done with smaller batches of icing you’re coloring.  If you’ve followed the previous steps there are usually none.

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5. Use a nylon to ’sift’ the icing.  Yes, a clean, never-been-used-before stocking or nylon!

I’d heard of the tip from my talented cookie decorator friend, TracyLH, before and saw it demonstrated at a piping class I took at the Bonnie Gordon School.  Jenny Maw, our instructor showed us how:

a) Begin by putting the icing into the nylon, but don’t push it down all the way to the end (or the foot).  Keep it about mid-way.  Hold on to the nylon by the ‘foot’ and the ‘opening’.  Here’s what that looks like:

b) Put the ‘nylon ball of icing’  into the opening of your piping bag, close the opening by squeezing your hand shut over it, and pull on the nylon so that the icing squeezes through the nylon and into the bag.

Voila!  Ready to go!

Now, I don’t do this for all my icing – it would take way too long!  It’s great for the tiny tips; #000, #00and #1 and was perfect for the finer piping we were doing in the Bonnie Gordon School Piping Class.

Here’s an example of royal icing lacework I made there.

Last but not least:

6. Rest your decorating tips in a damp cloth or damp paper towel between uses to prevent the icing in the tip from crusting over.  Alternatively, use coupler covers, or, if using squeeze bottles, remember to seal the opening with the lid.

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What To Do If Your Piping Tip Has Clogged

Okay, so it’s happened – you’re piping tip is clogged.  What should you do to fix the problem?  Here are 4 quick tips:

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One more quick note; avoid trying to just squeeze and force the icing out.  The piping bag can pop, especially if you’re using a disposable bag.

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I hope you liked these!  Let me know what you think or drop me a line sharing some of your own tips in the comment section.  Would love to hear from you!

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Happy piping!

xo,

Marian