I have to make a cake in April that is white buttercream with black fondant ribbons around the bottom of each tier. She wants a scroll pattern above the ribbons, but wants it in black. Can I achieve this with ri, or will this stain/bleed through to my buttercream?

eveyone must still be reading/posting to the "embarrasing customer story" lol

I never use RI for anything ... I do black on top of white BC and never have bleeding. I think one of the "tricks" is to make sure your white BC has crusted well. Bleeding occurs when wet blends with wet. If the bottom icing is dry, i.e. crusted, then the black bc will just sit on top of it. I have a number of cake pics with black writing and scrolls that didnt' bleed.

I agree that it will bleed esp. if the white cake part starts to thaw out and sweat. UGH! I did a wedding cake last year in the heat of the summer and needed to keep a white buttercream cake cold and not sweat because it was decorated with dark blue almost black buttercream scrolls. When I delivered it, the reception hall was not air-cond. because they wanted to save money and wait until people arrived to cool it down! Can you believe that! I found the thermostat and turned the air on and explained to the mgr. that it was all on him if the brides cake started bleeding and looking like a hot mess! The cake did fine though. One of the pointers I rec'd. from this site was to use Americolor. I purchased it on the internet and it really worked nicely. You may also wish to buy some powdered food color as it will keep your frosting from being too wet.

Oops, forgot to say that Americolor is just a brand of icing color. I bought black and navy (gel or paste) to achieve what I needed.

Great, thanks guys. Oh, and I already use americolors. They are great because the have a lid you can squeeze the gel through. Instead of using a toothpick.

I use Americolor in my icing also, and I can let the white buttercream crust really well but the black still bleeds everytime I've tried everything recommended here on CC but for whatever reason, I haven't found a solution. So, I stay away from using black piping on a white wedding cake. If the cake is any other color that won't show the bleeding then it isn't an issue. If I am doing it on a birthday (or other occasion) cake, I just wait as late as I can so that it doesn't start bleeding before it gets picked up. Drives me nuts!

I had a bride recently who wanted black scrollwork on a white cake... when I explained what would happen with the bleeding we found another option to incorporate the black onto the cake and she was happy with it. We did a black fondant bow on top as the topper (not everyone's taste, I realize), a black ribbon border and white scrollwork all over accented with black dragees. It turned out nicely.

I just saw a cake on the home page by "littlebits" that was a white BC cake w/black royal icing scrolls. Looks awesome! She may have some pointers.

Maybe refrigerating the cakes is the problem. I never refrigerate my cakes. Ergo my cakes never go from cold environment to room temp environment ... ergo they never start to "melt" or sweat, ergo the water from the sweating never affects the color.

It can be done.

i never refrigerate my cakes either

I've asked a ton of other decorators how they get it to work and I've tried what they have told me but alas... no matter what I try it bleeds

shantel, is your black icing maybe thin? have you tried adding some p.sugar to thicken it up (aka making it "drier"). perhaps that would help prevent it from being 'wet' and inhibit some of the bleeding?

I've tried adding more powdered sugar and also meringue powder but it still bleeds... I'm cursed! lol