Some cake decorating is, in this fast paced day and age, quite lovely--but tragically impractical !Actually doing some of these techniques could take days, if done correctly.
The techniques on the yellow cake are called Lambeth, named after a baker and decorator who made the most amazing cakes in the 1940's. Each line of royal icing is individually piped and the flowers are also hand piped. Not all of these motifs would be used on a single cake, but the idea of the decorating method is to have an intensely decorated cake.
The green cake shows examples of Australian curtain stringwork that is piped with a tip whose opening is about the size of a pinhead. The top of that cake is crimped in a pattern that is then highlighted with piping, too.
