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Does anyone know what figure piping is? I went to vote on the last contest and only found a handful of cakes that even had any figure piping on them...it was not difficult to vote because there weren't any to choose from :( . Figure piping is a 3-D character piped in icing, usually, but not always, done with a variety of straight writing tips, not a flow-in or starred-in flat pattern done on a cake.

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I have done figure piping in the past and have done many things from clowns, babies, dogs cats ect. I did not enter in the contest as I have a full time job and did not want to decorate a cake for the just for the  contest. i think it is fun to see what can be done with with butter cream to make figures.

I did enter and when I started looking at the other cakes, I had the same thought. For a second I thought I entered it wrong when I saw all the flat designs. Glad I wasn't the only one with this thought!

You are correct, Cathy, in your description of piped figures.  Unfortunately, there was a lot of misunderstanding as to what should be entered, but we need to include everyone who changed their titles to "Figure Piping Contest" - we just hope that everyone voting will keep in mind what a true piped figure is when placing their votes. 

 

I could enter a goose in a cow contest, but I won't win.  Does that make sense?  :)

Figure piping is the 3-d creation of a figure - animal, person, fruit, vegetable etc using  a piping bag containing buttercream icing (with or without a tip).  I say 3-d because the resulting figure is raised up off the cake's surface.  Some might call it 2-d.  That might be right as 3-d would mean totally upright *off any surface*.  

If you look for the cakes I entered and at some of the comments I made on those who did figure-piping you'll see some good examples.   I did NOT enter to win this contest!  I only posted mine to show what true, real figure-piping is when ?s were raised early on in the contest. 

I just thought that figure piping was something that had to do with 3-d and designing by hand and piping obviously with icing.  So I guess I picked and voted for one of the correct entries, Yippee.  Give me a tip!  Yes, I want a "icing" tip, LOL. 

I look at it this way, just like what Eileen said - anyone and everyone can enter what they want but it doesn't mean it meets the criteria.  The judges will know when it all comes down to it.  Let the voting begin and hopefully people will learn and HAVE FUN LEARNING all at one time. 

If you ever saw one of my roses that turned into a monster you would think it was a 3-d piping figure!  Have fun that is what it is all about.  Sharing and fun.

Thanks for all of the feedback on my post. I do not enter the contests, as I am a professional cake decorator, but I enjoy looking at many of your entries from past contests...some are magnificent! I just thought it was very interesting about all of the confusion surrounding figure piping. Again, thanks for the feedback, and happy decorating!

Ditto, ladies!

I voted for a few of the "correct" entries.

Figure piping is addressed in part 1 of the Wilton classes, remember the clown, lol?

To those of you who are confused, here is a link.

http://search.wilton.com/?q=figure+piping

 

mimi

Hey Cathy!  Just wanted to say hi!

I hardly am on the site but I love to look at all the forum discussions when I come on with a question!

Talk soon,

Shelley (Rochelle)

For some reason I started here with Rochelle and it stuck, it never does stick I am always Shelley everywhere!

Cathy Leavitt said:

Thanks for all of the feedback on my post. I do not enter the contests, as I am a professional cake decorator, but I enjoy looking at many of your entries from past contests...some are magnificent! I just thought it was very interesting about all of the confusion surrounding figure piping. Again, thanks for the feedback, and happy decorating!
Hey Shelley, I don't usually get on here much either, just usually to vote in a contest...just thought it was interesting about the figure piping confusion :) .
For people who have been decorating for a number of years figure piping is an old method that used to be used a lot.... with fondant figures figure piping has kind of become a lost art.  I remember making figures years ago that sometimes looked like what they intended to be and sometimes... one had to use their imagination!!!     I did vote on the true piped figures that I saw and not the 2-D figures.  Piping and figure piping are two different things for sure!!!
I thought the same thing

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