If you want to do a piped dot border on a buttercream cake instead of using fondant pearls, you need to make sure the dots are dots, and not dots with points on them.
Yes, it’s hard to pipe non-tippy round dots. So don’t bother, just make sure to fix them.
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Why you should fix the dotted borders.
If you pipe dots but they end up having tips on them, you’ll definitely want to fix them and smooth them out.
This wedding cake had four layers of buttercream dots at the base on each tier, and they were all very pointy. I smoothed them out to get rid of the points.
Before:
After:
This looks a lot better!
How to fix the tips on the dots.
To fix the tips on the dots, work fast and don’t let the icing crust over.
Using a damp fingertip, gently tap the tip of each pointy dot and press them down.
It’s a lot easier if you can get the points as small as you possibly can to begin with, and that’s just a matter of practicing.
Before you start piping, do a test run on a piece of waxed paper or a plastic cutting board to get the rhythm of piping a row of dots.
If the dots are too pointy, the icing might be too stiff. You can add a little more liquid to it to soften the icing.
When you start piping the dots, do one row and then soften any tips right away.
That will give you the best result, as opposed to waiting for all of them to be piped then doing it, since crusted icing is harder to press down smoothly.
If you used meringue buttercream it won’t be as critical to do it as fast, since it doesn’t crust over!
