Zebra Feathered Icing

For my zebra cake featured yesterday, I decided to make a matching icing design. I could have just made black and white stripes, just like a zebra, but I wanted to go for a little something different. I decided to try a feathered design, which can be done on cakes, bars, cookies, cheesecakes, and other desserts. It is actually fairly simple, but looks quite impressive! So I covered the cake in chocolate glaze, then piped on white stripes. It looked pretty cool just like that, but I then made it into a feathered design. Still reminds me of a zebra! I was thinking of making a small batch of both chocolate and white icing, and marbling the icing. Then I would have had zebra cake with cow frosting. I'll save that for another time.

Step One: Cover the cake with chocolate frosting, icing, or glaze. You don't want it thin so that it runs down the sides, but thick enough to spread and soft enough to drag a design through it. I only bothered to frost the top, not the sides, but you can do both.

Step Two: Pipe on stripes of white icing. Space them about an inch or so apart. You can make them closer or further, as long as it is consistent. I was actually impressed at how straight I piped these lines free-handed!

Step Three: Using a wooden toothpick or skewer, gently drag the toothpick in a straight line vertically through the horizontal stripes, down the cake, starting at the far left. Drag the toothpick from top to bottom, and don't stop along the way. Wipe the pick clean. About an inch or so from that line (again, it can be closer or further) drag the toothpick in the same way, this time going up the cake. Repeat this pattern, alternating up and down to get the pattern. You can choose to make all of the drags go in one direction as well, but I think it looks neater when they are alternating.