This cake was a practice cake for me before making the actual cake on May 19. The 5/19 cake will have a 6" cake stacked on top of this one. There were alot of new things I tried on this cake (heck everything is new to me), like the texture, the floral wire, the use of gumpaste for the stars, the ribbon around the bottom. I researched quite a bit on this site for tips and techniques (Thank you all!)

But I still have questions. First, here's the cake:




1. I like the texture on the fondant but I think I'd like to only have it on the sides of the top cake-to-be. I just used that little decorated rolling pin from Wilton. Is there even a way to do this? How do you 'texturize' just the sides of a fondant cake before the fondant goes on the cake????

2. The stars are made of gumpaste. Can I keep these and re-use them for the cake on 5/19? I think that's a little less than 2 weeks. If so, how do I store them?

3. I used royal icing to attach the stars to the wire. I'm pretty sure it's dry enough BUT some of my stars are 'twirling' around the wire. Will candy melts work better or is my royal icing flawed? (First time making that too!)

4. Is there anyway to make the gold on the stars more prominent? I tried to paint it on mixing it with Vodka but that didn't seem to help. Maybe there was too much vodka not enough dust?

I know there is something else but my baby just woke up. Any help would be greatly appreciated! Thank you!

Whoah, that pic is huge. sorry.

First off, great cake! You did a really great job. I did a cake a while back and the girl wanted stars and let me tell you they gave such me a headache! I would save the stars you made just put them in a box or something so they don't get dusty or just cover them. I had the same problem with the stars twirling around the wire. I coated the wire with fondant then stuck them in and they still did the same thing. So sorry can't really help you out. I am impressed with how you curled the wire.....it looks like that would have been really hard to do. Anyway, as far as just texturing the sides, I think that for that you have to do it after you put it on the cake. I know that's how they do the quilting. But you have to do it fairly quickly before the fondant gets hard, and you have to press really hard...so make sure you use a sturdy cake.

1. maybe when you roll your fondant out, try laying a cake circle over top of the piece of fondant the side of the top of the cake and roll your rolling pin over the fondant, using the cake circle as sort of a shield keeping that particular section free of the imprint..might work?
2. You can definitely save the stars and use them for the actual cake.
3. Candy melts could work better, but if it's going to be warm at all you'll want to steer clear of them.
4. Are you sure you're using luster dust for the gold?? If it's shimmer dust or something like that you'll never get the same look. If it is luster dust, try mixing just enough vodka so it makes the dust the consistency of nail polish, that should give you a nice deep gold shimmery shine. HTH

It looks very nice.

You can try covering the center of the fondant when you texture the remainder.

Yes, you can keep the stars for use later. just protect them from dust, NOT in an airtight container.

A bit more royal may help limit the spin. Usually a bend or loop int he wire before you add the star will help prevent spinning.

Gold paint a small amount of dust in a small container and add alchohol a drop at a time till you have paint.

1st let me say its a very pretty cake.

as for getting the impression just on the sides, i would put the cake on a board the exact size of the cake 1st, then sit it on a coffee can (or other study can that is slightly smaller than your cake) then take your impression pin and do the sides, but as the PP said you will need to work quickly and press hard. then you can put the cake onto the larger/thicker board you will use. the first time I made anything on wire, i had that spiny twirly problem too, i made just a slight hook at the end that was inserted into the shape (so the bend was inside the shape) and that stopped the twirl

Thank you all very much! I'm printing out your comments for 5/19!

I think I'm going to try KHalstead's idea on shielding the fondant on what would be the top of the cake. It would be just my luck to have the cake sitting on top of something and it come crashing down the night before I need it.

I'll be keeping those stars---they weren'tdifficult but I don't want to do them again. I may try painting them again.

Thanks again!