How To Write On Cakes (+ DIY Compliment Cakes)

You’ve probably seen some of our compliment cakes floating around on Instagram in partnership with Mentos and their #RandomActsOfCompliMentos campaign! I’ve really loved being a part of this campaign and the idea of giving compliments to people just because!

Sooooo since today is National Best Friends Day, we wanted to share our tutorial for how we made these fun cakes! Because it turns out writing on cakes doesn’t have to be hard. It’s actually CRAZY EASY!! We even have free templates for a couple of ’em. Giving compliment cakes for no reason other than your friend just being awesome and deserving one… well, that’s kind of the best.

Making Royal Icing

Royal icing is a great option for writing on cakes because it hardens, so you can easily transfer your words to the cake. Being able to write the words off the cake gives you much more room for trial and error and mistakes.

Here’s what you’ll need to make royal icing:

• 1 1/2 tablespoons meringue powder
• 2 cups sifted powder sugar
• 2 to 3 tablespoons water

To make the royal icing:

1. Combine all ingredients in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment. Beat for 5 to 7 minutes till stiff peaks form. Add desired food coloring. Check for consistency at this point. For the dotted style, you want the icing on the thicker side. For thin detailed lettering like cursive, thin out the icing with a bit more water. 
2. Fill your piping bag, fitted with the piping tip, with royal icing.

Choose Your Writing Style or Font

Today, I’ll share three different writing styles to use with the royal icing: a dotted style, a script style and a handwritten style.

The dotted or script style can be done with any font you’d like! Simply choose a font from your computer and type out the message you want to say into a document. Be sure to adjust the size so that it will fit on the cake you are creating. Print out and follow the tutorials below.

If you want to create compliment cakes like the examples I’ve shown here, I’ve provided templates below!

 

Dotted Style Cake Writing

Lay your printed word template on a hard surface and place a piece of wax paper over the top. Tape it in place on at least two sides. This will help it stay in place while you pipe! 

Pipe small dots right next to each other, following the lines of the words you chose. Let the piping set completely, several hours or over night.

Then, carefully peel the wax paper off of each letter. It’s best to peel the wax paper back (versus the trying to peel the letters up) to ensure they remains in tact*. Place the letters on your cake as desired!

Script Style Cake Writing

 

Lay your printed word template on a hard surface and place a piece of wax paper over the top. Tape it in place on at least two sides. This will help it stay in place while you pipe! 

Pipe in a continuous motion, following the letters, just as you would if you were writing with a pen or pencil. Let the piping set completely, several hours or over night.

Then, carefully peel the wax paper off of each letter. It’s best to peel the wax paper back (versus the trying to peel the letters up) to ensure they remains in tact*. Place the letters on your cake as desired!

Using Handwriting on a Cake

For the sans serif (as seen on the “what are you wearing” cake): For the writing seen on the “What Are You Wearing” cake, we used our handwriting instead of a font.

Write out what you want to say on a piece of paper. Place it under wax paper, just as stated above, and use that as your template! Pipe each letter, lifting your hand/piping as infrequently as possible for the smoothest look.

Let the piping set completely, several hours or over night. Then, carefully peel the wax paper off of each letter. It’s best to peel the wax paper back (versus the trying to peel the letters up) to ensure they remains in tact*. Place the letters on your cake as desired!

NOTE: If you have a letter or two that breaks, they’ll fit right back together like puzzle pieces on the cake and you won’t even be able to tell! Just continue as planned placing letters on the cake.

Photos by Jeff Mindell

Well Happy National Best Friends Day, you guys!!! What would your compliment cake for your BFF say!? If you make one, be sure to share it on Instagram and tag #RandomActsOfCompliMentos so we can see it!!