Cake decorating made easy:writing with frosting (a bit of a cheat)

those blue things are the message stamps

I used a toothpick to trace "Chris"

So here's my son's birthday cake. It's very simple, but I think it passes. Anyways, what I wanted to tell you about are 2 ways to simplify the message part done in frosting.  

Several years ago, I bought this set of frosting "stamps" -- the Script Message Press Set, made by Wilton. You press them into the cake's frosting, and a message is stamped. Next, you trace this stamped message with your lettering frosting using a small round piping tip. Lacking a stamp with the right words (such as a name), I use a toothpick to trace the word(s), then follow up with the frosting for the lettering.

The stamp kit that I bought came with the following words: Happy, Birthday, Anniversary, Congratulations, Best, Wishes. I can put them together for many different sentiments. Last I checked, this particular set was retailing for under $5 USD. 

But I also want to point out that a toothpick and a steady hand can create a nice message, as well. If you trace your message into soft and fresh frosting, any mistakes can be smoothed over and you can try with the toothpick again.

I find it best to do my message first, then any edge trim after, just in case I need to start over on the toothpick message, by smoothing the frosting.

For bags, tips and couplers (the couplers are the pieces that attach the tip to the bag, one part goes inside the bag, the other secures the tip from the outside), I've had the same basic set of tips, round, medium star, small star, and leaf, for about 21 years. My original bags wore out years ago (split the seams), so now I use washed-out freezer bags, whose zip no longer works very well. I snip a bit off the corner, fit in the coupler and tip, fill the bag with frosting, then roll the top edge down as I go.