Fit decorating bag with basketweave decorating tip 47 and fill 1/2 full or less with medium consistency icing.

Hold the decorating bag at a 45? angle at 6:00, with tip lightly touching the surface of the iced cake and the serrated side of the tip up. Squeeze, allowing icing to attach to surface, then continue squeezing out a vertical strip of icing from the top of the cake to the bottom. Stop squeezing; pull tip away.

With bag at a 45? angle at 3:00, squeeze out short horizontal stripes of icing over the vertical line starting at the top. Spacing between horizontal stripes should be the same as the width of the tip opening; the length for each stripe should be identical.

Squeeze next vertical line over ends of horizontal stripes. Start next set of horizontal stripes by burying the tip under the first (or previous) vertical line.

Repeat vertical lines then horizontal stripes, always piping a single vertical line, until you have covered the area with basketweave. Each new set of lines should fit between the previous set.

Hints:

Always pipe a single vertical line, then pipe short horizontal stripes.

Having the cake surface at eye level, on a turntable, makes this technique easier.

Try using different tips: stars, rounds, serrated side of basketweave tip down or combining two different tips, to vary the woven basket effects.

If done on the side of a cake, ice the cake first.