Welcome to the Cake Decorators Q&A

Hi Joe, my writing on cakes isn’t great either but I’ve been practising by printing out a nice font on A4 paper, put it in a poly pocket and tape it to the work surface. Then pipe onto the plastic. You can go over it again and again until it starts to get easier (and it does). If I’m not feeling confident though I pipe the message onto a sugarpaste ribbon or plaque rather than directly on the cake so if it goes horribly wrong I can do it again!

I totally cheat. I buy a box of silver spoon royal icing sugar and put some in a bowl and add a little bit of water with a teaspoon and just stir it. I don’t beat it or anything or bang the air out and it works perfectly well and I don’t waste any as I just make up a little amount! It also means you can easily change the consistency until you are happy with it.

If you use satin ice gum paste make sure you roll out onto the mat very thin..and don’t forget to trex your mat u shouldn’t have any problems .

Hi Joeb

There are many instructional tutorials on youtube in Cricut basics. I haven’t posted a link since there are many to choose from and may be more informative if you select one which suits you best. If you’re just looking for ways of writing on cakes, in the chocolate buttercream cornelli tutorial Paul shows how to write with icing. There are many tappit type number/letter cutters and also mini stainless cutters which come in round tins. Another effective and easy way to make lettering and numbers is by rolling small amounts of fondant into thin sausages
and forming them into name shapes. You can make the shapes big or small and as funky as you like. I have a set of single letter and number embossers made by Tala which can be used with gel colours or by simply making an imprint on the fondant then piped over. A useful tool is the flower frilling stick which can be used as a pen to emboss fondant in your own handwriting which can either be piped over or painted with a fine brush or filled in with edible ink pen. These are just a few ideas which may help while you sort out the Cricut.

Thanks Diane, I’ve done both of those, and looked at tutorials etc and it’s still not working correctly, am wondering if I have a faulty machine.

Madeitwithlove, thanks for the advice, my own handwriting makes the cakes look unprofessional but didn’t realise Paul had a tutorial on it so I’ll look at that. I’ll have a look at the letter embossers and didn’t think about using the Flower Frilling stick either…all great ideas. I am beginning to regret the Cricut!

Thank you!

Doodlecake, that’s a great idea! I think it doesn’t help my confidence that I’ve not found the right combination of ingredients to actually pipe correctly, either too thick or runny 🙁

Don’t give up on the cricut it’s really good once you get the hang off it…had you got your pressure on med and speed on high …the paste as to be rolled really thin .I use my pasta machine then I smooth it onto the mat with a cake smoother then it works hope u have better luck with it soon x

I cheat too lol !! I too do as doodlecake does- it makes just the right amount for the project in hand- glad im not the only one. good luck with the ideas for the cricut
Sharon x

Oooh, running it through a pasta machine sounds like a good plan to try out! I don’t want to give up as the people who sold it to me seem very reluctant to have it back, and it’s a lot of money just to bin! Thanks for your advice, I’m going to try again over the weekend!

Still no joy with Cricut so I’ve just had delivered a bucket full of gum paste in the hope that it works…the cake is needed for tomorrow and so far there are no words on it!

Hi Joe, I hope your stress levels aren’t too high and the cake is going well. It’s probably too late but I just did some numbers by rolling thin sausages of sugarpaste and forming the shapes and it looks pretty good!

Hi Doodlecake, it’s not too late as I’m running behind! I did actually try that last night with gumpaste which wasn’t the right medium to use but has left me thinking that’s probably how I’m going to do the 21st bit, nice and big with sugarpaste, I’m sure I’ll get away with it! Have managed to get Cricut to print ‘happy birthday’ but not entirely sure I’m going to manage to get it off its mat! Waiting until the last minute to attempt it!

Hi Joe. I absolutely would not be without my cricket. It took a few goes with it but have it to perfection now. So here goes. Have pressure on medium and speed on high. I always use petal paste or tylos mixed with sugarpaste ( 1 teaspoon of tylos to 250gms of sugarpaste) Roll out really thin on the mat and let it rest for a few minutes before loading it into the cricut. I never have any problems now since I tried all these little changes. Hope this is a help to u and u keep going with ur cricut. Honestly it is really fantastic and ur cakes will be a wow. GOOD LUCK

You can check 100+ things you can make with a Cricut here… https://9mousai.com/ideas-for-what-you-can-make-with-a-cricut/