String Work with Royal Icing | The Technique That Wows at Weddings
Chef Alan TetreaultIn this tutorial: What You'll Need · Icing for String Work · Dot Borders · Shell Borders & Snail Trail · Heart Borders · Lattice Borders · Colonial Scrolls · Line Scrolls · Making a Parchment Cone · Preparing Icing (Paddling) · Basic Drop Strings · Double & Triple Strings · Quintet Borders · Embellishments · Decorating a Full Cake
String work is one of the most elegant – and most advanced – piping techniques in cake decorating. The delicate draping lines of a well-executed drop string border can transform even a simple buttercream cake into something truly special. In this nearly 50-minute tutorial, Chef Alan Tetreault of Global Sugar Art walks through every aspect of string work using round tips, starting with foundational borders and building all the way up to decorating a complete cake with triple drop strings, floral sprays, and finishing embellishments.
📌 This is part of the Buttercream Basics series: Part 1 – Baking the Cake from Scratch · Part 2 – Making Buttercream Icing · Part 3 – Piping with Star Tips · Part 4 – String Work (you're here) · Part 5 – Petal & Leaf Tips · Part 6 – Advanced Borders
What You'll Need
- Round piping tips – #1 through #12 (Chef Alan uses #2, #4, #8, and #10 throughout the tutorial); browse round tips
- Petal tip #104 – for piping roses on the finished cake
- Leaf tip #67 – for adding leaves to the floral spray
- Boiled icing – Chef Alan's preferred icing for string work (recipe available on the Global Sugar Art website)
- Royal icing – also works well for string work
- Meringue powder – key ingredient for boiled icing
- Parchment paper triangles – for making disposable piping bags
- Offset spatula – for paddling icing to remove air bubbles
- Cake tester or needle tool – for removing broken strings and unplugging tips
- Scissors – for cutting parchment bags and transferring roses
- Wet paper towel or sponge – to keep piping tips from drying out
- Turntable – helpful for decorating the finished cake
Choosing the Right Icing for String Work
Chef Alan uses a boiled icing for this tutorial rather than the buttercream used in earlier videos in the series. The boiled icing is made by beating meringue powder and water into a meringue, adding powdered sugar to create a stiff royal icing, and then slowly pouring in a sugar syrup cooked to 240°F (softball stage). The result is a smooth, strong meringue icing that holds up beautifully for both flowers and string work.
Royal icing also works well for string work. The key is having an icing with enough strength to hold a suspended string without breaking.
⚠️ Do not attempt string work with buttercream icing. It simply does not hold together well enough to create suspended strings.
Dot Borders
Tip: #8 round | Angle: 90° (straight down)
The dot border (also called a button border) is one of the simplest borders you can make with a round tip:
- Hold the bag straight up and down at a 90° angle
- Squeeze the icing out, keeping the tip buried in the icing as the mound builds
- Stop the pressure first – then make a tiny circular motion to finish cleanly
- Repeat, keeping each dot uniform in size
💡 Tip: If you lift the tip before releasing pressure, you'll get a little peak or column on top of the dot. Always stop squeezing before you move the tip.
This border works with any size round tip and can be used on the top, bottom, or sides of a cake – or piped as polka dots across the surface.
Shell Borders with Round Tips
↪ Standard Shell Border
Tip: #10 round | Angle: 45°
The technique is the same as a shell border with a star tip:
- Hold the bag at a 45° angle
- Squeeze and let the icing build up until it rolls over itself
- Relax the pressure and pull back
- Start the next shell by overlapping the tail of the previous one
This creates a chunky, smooth border – perfect for the bottom edge of a cake.
↪ Snail Trail
Tip: #1, #2, or #3 round | Angle: 45°
The snail trail is a tiny shell border commonly used on fondant-covered cakes and wedding cakes. The technique is identical to the standard shell – just with a much smaller tip. It is often used where the fondant meets the cake board to create a clean, minimal finish.
Heart Borders
Tip: #6, #7, or #8 round | Angle: 45°
A heart is essentially two shells piped side by side:
- Angle the bag toward your right shoulder
- Pipe a shell, building up icing and relaxing pressure as you pull down to a point
- Angle the bag toward your left shoulder
- Pipe a second shell on the other side, meeting the first at the bottom point
Hearts can be piped as a continuous border, scattered across a cake, or placed individually next to a written message.
Lattice Borders
Tip: #4 round (can go down to #1)
The key to clean lattice work is never dragging the tip across the cake surface:
- Touch the icing to the cake to anchor it
- Lift the tip slightly off the surface
- Let the string fall in a straight line and touch down at the other end
- Repeat parallel lines, then change direction to create the crosshatch pattern
💡 Tip: If you try to drag the tip along the cake, the line will wobble. Lifting the tip and letting the string fall by gravity is what creates perfectly straight lines.
💡 Tip: Keep a needle tool or toothpick nearby to pick up and remove any mistakes.
A Note on Piping Tips
Both Wilton and Ateco make standard round tips numbered 1 through 12. PME also makes beautiful tips with additional sizes – including 1.5, 0, 00, and 000 – which are used for extremely fine work like oriental string work. Those ultra-fine tips require a specially prepared royal icing that has been sieved multiple times to remove any lumps or air bubbles.
Colonial Scroll Borders
Tip: #2 round
↪ Standard Colonial Scroll
- Start at the bottom and pipe a C-shape, repeating it to establish a pattern
- Go back and start in the middle of each C, piping a tight circular motion (the scroll)
- Connect each scroll to the next
- Add two small C-shapes between each scroll as embellishments
↪ Reverse Colonial Scroll
Same concept, but the scrolls alternate direction – start the C from the bottom for one, then from the top for the next.
Line Scroll Borders
Tip: #1, #2, or #3 round
This is a beautiful border for the inside edge at the top of a cake or the perimeter of a sheet cake. It is built in two stages:
↪ Stage 1: The Base Pattern
- Pipe a swag (a gentle curve) ending with a loop
- Repeat – swag and loop, swag and loop – keeping spacing as even as possible
- Keep the tip lifted off the cake surface to avoid dragging
↪ Stage 2: The Overpiping
- Starting on the inside of the pattern, pipe one loop up, two loops across, and a loop at the bottom
- Repeat to fill in the entire border
- The overpiped loops should curl over themselves as the icing falls
💡 Tip: This is a very hard border to keep perfectly even. Focus on consistent spacing between each loop. Varying the height of the top and bottom loops changes the look dramatically – try making the top loop taller, the bottom loop shorter, or both loops extended for different effects.
Making a Parchment Paper Cone
For string work, Chef Alan recommends using a fresh parchment cone for each bag of icing rather than refilling a reusable bag. Every time icing is reloaded, moisture is introduced, dried particles form, and the tip begins to clog – which is disastrous for string work.
To make a parchment cone:
- Start with a parchment triangle, long side toward you, point facing away
- Pick up one corner and curl it around to the inside, forming a cone shape
- Hold it between your fingers and wrap the other corner around the outside
- Align all edges so the point is sharp
- Fold the top edge over three or four times to secure
- Snip a small opening at the tip and drop in a #2 piping tip
Preparing Your Icing: Paddling
Before filling your bag, the icing must be paddled to remove air bubbles:
- Place a portion of icing on a clean board
- Work back and forth with an offset spatula, pressing out trapped air
- Continue for one to two minutes until the icing is smooth, creamy, and free of visible bubbles
⚠️ Air bubbles are the most common cause of broken strings. Paddle your icing every time you fill a new bag.
Basic Drop String Work
Tip: #2 round
This is the foundation of all string work. The technique is counterintuitive for beginners but essential to master:
↪ The Correct Technique
- Touch the tip to the cake to anchor the icing
- Pull the tip straight back – away from the cake, not downward
- Bring the tip over to the side and reattach it to the cake
- The string will naturally droop into a smooth, even curve
↪ The Common Mistake
Most beginners try to guide the string downward, following the curve with the tip. This produces an uneven, wobbly line. Instead, pull straight out and let gravity do the work.
💡 Tip: Always anchor both ends of every string firmly to the cake. If you don't, strings will begin falling off as you work your way around.
💡 Tip: Keep a wet paper towel nearby to wipe the tip clean between strings.
↪ Overlapping Drop Strings
For an interlocking effect, start the second string at the midpoint of the first, so each string overlaps the previous one. The technique is identical – just offset the starting points.
Double and Triple Drop Strings
↪ Double Drop String
- Pipe the first (outer) string as usual
- Pipe a second string just inside the first, making sure both strings share the same anchor points at the top
- Keep the distance between the two strings as consistent as possible
Double strings can also be overlapped using the same offset technique as single strings.
↪ Triple Drop String
Add a third string inside the second. Chef Alan recommends keeping triple strings slightly narrower than doubles, though wider drops work if the icing consistency is strong enough.
💡 Tip: Always make sure all strings in a set come together at the same anchor point at the top. Staggered anchor points will ruin the clean look of the border.
↪ Adding a Finishing Detail
At each anchor point, touch the tip to the cake, drop a small loop, then pipe a tiny circle on top. This creates a polished finish where the strings meet.
Quintet Borders
The quintet border creates a woven, overlapping effect with three strings of different lengths:
- Drop one long string
- Drop a second string about 3/8 inch shorter on each side
- Drop a third (shortest) string inside that
- Now reverse: start at the end of the shortest string and drop a new long string
- The middle string always connects to the middle
- The long string becomes the short, and the short becomes the long
- Repeat the pattern
This creates an elegant scalloped effect that appears far more complex than it is.
Embellishments: Loops, Bows, and Bells
Once your string border is complete, you can dress it up with embellishments at each anchor point:
↪ Loops
Drop a small loop of icing from the anchor point and add a second smaller loop inside it.
↪ Bows
- Pipe a small heart shape on the right side, then the left side (just like the heart border technique)
- Pull two small tails of icing downward and let them break off naturally
↪ Bells
- Come up at an angle from underneath
- Squeeze the tip while keeping it buried, letting the icing build up so the bottom is larger than the top
- Pipe a small circle around the bottom edge
This is an old-fashioned decoration, sometimes seen with a bow piped on top – a classic wedding cake embellishment.
Decorating a Complete Cake
Chef Alan brings in a 9-inch round cake iced with pink buttercream and demonstrates how to decorate it from start to finish using the techniques covered in this tutorial.
↪ Step 1: Divide the Cake
Before piping any string work, mark the cake into even sections:
- Mark opposite sides of the cake
- Divide into four equal sections
- Divide each quarter in half, then half again – creating 16 evenly spaced marks
⚠️ If you skip this step, you'll end up with one section that's too wide or too narrow by the time you work your way around the cake.
↪ Step 2: Triple Drop String (Side Border)
Using a #2 tip with white royal icing, pipe a triple drop string border around the side of the cake, following the 16 marks for even spacing. Pull the tip straight out from the cake (not downward), then bring it over to the next mark.
💡 Tip: Always do your side decorations before your bottom border. If a string breaks, it will fall onto the bottom border – so decorate the sides first and the bottom last.
💡 Tip: If a string breaks while you're working, use a cake tester or needle tool to carefully lift and remove it from the cake. Never use a pin – it could get lost in the cake.
↪ Step 3: Side Embellishments
At each anchor point of the triple string, pipe a small loop dropping down, then a tiny circle to finish.
↪ Step 4: Dot Border (Bottom)
Using a #8 tip, pipe evenly spaced dots around the base of the cake. Come in at a 45° angle (since the base of the cake meets the board), keep the tip buried as the icing builds, and finish with a small circular motion.
💡 Tip: If a dot has a small point on top, dip your finger in water and gently touch it to flatten it smooth. (Wear latex gloves when decorating professionally.)
↪ Step 5: String Embellishment (Bottom Border)
Using a smaller tip than the dots, drop a single string between each dot to add an extra layer of detail.
↪ Step 6: Accent Dots
Using pink icing, pipe a small dot at the center of each string drop along the bottom border.
↪ Step 7: Shell Border (Top)
Using a #8 tip, pipe a tight shell border around the top edge of the cake using the round tip shell technique.
↪ Step 8: Floral Spray (Top)
- Pipe the stems using a #2 round tip – start with three stems of varying length going upward, then add curved branches following the edge of the cake (think in odd numbers)
- Pipe rosebuds using a #104 petal tip with pink icing, scattering them along the branches
- Pipe three full buttercream roses on mounds of icing in the center of the spray
- Add leaves using a #67 leaf tip with green icing behind the buds and roses
- Add tendrils using a #2 round tip – small squiggly curls extending from behind the buds
💡 Tip: Don't over-decorate the spray. Keep the branches minimal – too many will look cluttered.
↪ Step 9: Writing
Using a #2 tip with white icing, pipe a simple message (in this case, "Happy Birthday") on the remaining open space on the cake top.
Key Takeaways
- Use boiled icing or royal icing for string work – buttercream will not hold
- Paddle your icing every time you fill a new bag to remove air bubbles
- Use a fresh parchment bag each time – refilling causes dried particles that clog tips
- Pull straight back when piping strings, not downward – let gravity create the curve
- Anchor both ends of every string firmly to the cake
- Mark your cake into even sections before beginning string work
- Decorate sides before bottoms – broken strings fall downward
- Keep a cake tester or needle tool handy for removing mistakes and unplugging tips
- Keep the tip on a wet sponge between uses so the icing doesn't dry out
This tutorial is part of Global Sugar Art's library of free cake decorating videos by Chef Alan Tetreault. Browse all tutorials →
