I do apologize if this has been posted already, but I can't seem to find it on the boards.

I am making a wedding cake for a friend, and she's asked for all buttercream, no fondant. All of the other fancy cakes I've done have been with mmf. I'm not too concerned about the buttercream decorating because the forums here are so helpful, but she has asked that the top tier of the cake be a fake that she can keep on display in her house. I haven't worked with the styrofoam faux cakes before either (this will be a learning experience for me!). I am wondering if the buttercream on the faux cake will go bad, or how long she will be able to keep it on display in her home? Would it be better if that cake was done with a fondant?

Thanks for any input!!

use royal icing

Welcome to CC carvan!!

"Indydebi" does a lot of dummy cakes using buttercream and would be a great resource for you.
I have done dummy cakes for displays and have used buttercream with out any problems. It may depend on humidity levels where your friend lives and other problems like that for keeping it.

The royal icing is a good idea also if you think it would match the rest of the cake?

Good luck!

I do buttercream frosting on my dummy cakes with no problem. They've sat in my home for a year with no problem other than becoming dusty. I keep it out of direct sunlight so mine haven't faded much at all in all that time.

I've also covered dummy cakes in fondant and they too are still sitting around the house, perfectly fine (other than dust) and look just as good as the day I made them.

KimAZ

I've used buttercream on quite a few cake dummies and the only thing that happens, like KimAZ said, is that they get dusty. i make sure when I'm making bc for my dummies that I only use water, shortening, and sugar so that there is no dairy product to spoil. That's my .02

Oh yeah..and no need to add the vanilla or other flavoring. Save that for the real cake!

KimAZ

Do you put something under the BC to hold it or just ice directlly on the dummie?

I just frost directly on the dummy. I've read that some people cover the dummies tightly with plastic wrap but I never did. Seems like that would be harder to frost and get smooth with plastic wrap under it.

KimAZ

Thanks for everyone's input. I used buttercream and it turned out well.
The only thing was that the buttercream seemed to discolour slightly and went from white to kind of yellowish. But I think it won't even be noticeable to most people (I'm just a little too picky!).

re: the fading white on dummies .... I have a 6-tier dummy cake in my window and it's all white with red silk poinsettas between the tiers. A friend said, "You're not going to eat it anyway, so why don't you spray paint it white?" Haven't done it yet ... but I'm going to!!