Richard Goh’s Cake Deco Class 2: How to Pipe Basket Weave?

10^th March 2013

This week we are making basket weave cake. This certainly sounds very advanced to me. Although I have seen the technique of piping basket weave in recipe book and Youtube video before I have never imagined I would attend to it one day. Thanks to the class. We were told to bring two cakes this week. I guess it is because basket weave design looks nicer with a tall cake.

What you need?

• Two basic round sponge cakes (total height 3” to 4”)
• Wilton tip #22 (open star tip) and #48 (flat tip with teeth)
• Turntable
• Knife
• Flat spatula
• Piping bag
• Whipping cream (provided by instructor) (we used non-dairy in class)
• Food colour
• Fruits/ Flowers for decoration (optional)
• Aluminum foil for making basket handle (optional)

What I learn from this class?

• Pipe basket weave design
• Fold basket handle using aluminum foil

Preparation

• Level and slice the cakes into 2 or 3 layers as usual. Stack the cakes and sandwich whipping cream / any filling of your choice. Then crumb coat the cake. 

• Lift up the turntable/cake (you can put a cake box below). It is easier to work with when the cake is at your eye level. This is the tips I learnt from Richard.

• Fit two piping bags with Wilton #22 and #48 (I use #20 and #47 which are similar tips but smaller. I do think that #22 and #48 produce better looking basket weave. If using Wilton #47 the teeth is on one side only, so make sure the teeth side is facing outside, means facing yourself). Fill up both piping bags with whipping cream.

• Now sit down and you can start to pipe. For first timer, I suggest practising on paper first because once one line is piped wrongly you got to redo. This was what happened to me. :P 

How to pipe basket weave? 

1) Mark 3 lines on cake with knife. The distance between lines is about 1” apart. Hold piping bag 45 degree facing downwards, pipe vertical stripe along the center line from bottom to top using Wilton#22 (pink).

2) Pipe horizontal stripe (green) across the pink stripe starting from top, using the marking as a guide for the length of the stripes. The spacing in between should be the same as the width of the tip opening.

 

3) Pipe another vertical stripe along the marking (left line if you are a left-hander, right line if you are a right-hander, it is spontaneous by the way) over the horizontal stripes (the pink stripes should cover the end of the green stripes). Mark another line beside the second vertical stripe (refer to the arrows on the illustration).

 

4) Pipe horizontal stripes (green) to fill up the spacing in between the existing horizontal stripes across the vertical stripe (pink). Use the marking as a guide for the length of the stripes.

 

5) Repeat step 3 and so on and so forth until the whole cake is covered with basket weave.

So here is my first basket weave cake, very ugly piping. As I took too long time to complete the whipping cream had turned dry.

Piping on the side of the cake is not as easy as I think. When piping the vertical stripe, if using too much strength the stripe will “sink” into the crumb coat, therefore it does not look 3D. If using too little strength the stripe will not stick to the crumb coat and may fall down. Piping horizontal stripe seems easier but still need a lot of practice. I think how to end it nicely is a bit tricky to me.

After completed the basket weave I used the same open star tip to pipe the border at the bottom and used Wilton# 1M to pipe the border on top. Then I decorated the cake with canned longan and strawberry bites.

For the sponge cake I used this [Easy to succeed] basic sponge cake recipe, vanilla flavour. I made two 6” cakes, sliced each cake into 2 layers. Since my cakes were quite tall I only used 1 ½ cakes, total 3 layers.

Cross section of the cake – first layer is whipping cream and fresh strawberries; second layer is whipping cream and blueberry fillings.

 

The cake fall apart easily after slicing, I think it is because the cake is tall and another reason could be the whipping cream between the layers is too thin. I should apply more whipping cream next time.

Photo taken in the class