Basic Decorating Techniques - Reverse Shell

Opposite-facing shells look spectacular as top and bottom borders and as framed areas on your cake—they add a wonderful motion effect. The look is even fancier finished with a dot or a star at the center of each shell curve.
Getting Ready

Set up your practice board.

Insert a coupler base in your Featherweight bag and lock open star tip 21 onto it with your coupler ring.


Fill bag half full with medium consistency Buttercream Icing.

Practice with: Tip 21
Icing: medium consistency
Positions:
Bag: 45° at 6:00
Tip: slightly above the surface

1. As you begin to form a shell, squeeze hard, letting the icing fan out.
2. Form a curve, moving the tip from 9:00 (3:00 for left hand decorating) to 12:00 to 6:00. Relax pressure and lower the tip, pulling straight toward you at 6:00 to form a tail.
3. Repeat with another shell, curving from 3:00 (9:00 for left hand decorating) to 12:00 to 6:00.
4. To make a reverse shell border, pipe a chain of swirling reverse shells, with the fan end of each new shell covering the tail of the previous shell. If you are making the border on a round cake, turn the cake as you go so that the back of the bag is at 6:00 and you are working toward yourself.