Ive seen this effect on a website and would really love to recreate something similar, I know our local supermarket is doing a similar sort of thing where you can take in a photo and they print it onto edible paper and stick it on the top of the cake but this is something completely different - the colours are much more vibrant and the picture beautifully covers the whole top of the cake AND the sides... has anyone any idea at all how this is done? I'd love to do something similar for my sons birthday.

It almost has to have been done w/an airbrush. It is some of the best airbrushing I have seen
You would mask off the yellow part; airbrush the dark color 1st, then add the yellow ...... letting some of it become 'overspray' into the dark area.
As for the planet and the white w/black 'guy'....again one would mask off that part before airbrushing the dark color; stencils have to have been used

many thanks for your reply, i agree that it looks like airbrushing but heres another picture from the same site and its even more detailed, surely even with stencils you couldnt get that effect?

what is the website?

Wow, that is crazy!! I've been looking for a similar technique to get very thin stripes flat & even over a cake....almost looks like a computer generated image printed out onto an edible medium?

I had to do a search, those are terrific. I found them here -
https://www.cakestoyourdoor.co.uk/acatalog/Boys_Birthday_Cakes.html

In the enlargement of the princess cake, you can see a seam going up the right corner.

I would say an edible image on the cakes. All they would need is a bigger printer that prints wider/longer prints.

delete

It definatly looks like a Giant edible image! very cool!!

Am I the only one who thinks it looks like Photoshop?

If you look at the railway cake..and click to enlarge..you can see the seams on top of the cake and on the corners.

I would also say its an edible image. I did a cake with a damask pattern last week and managed to get them lined up almost perfectly. the only seam you could see was at one corner at the back where the pattern didnt meet up exactly

http://forum.cakecentral.com/modules.php?name=gallery&file=displayimage&pid=1319310

you could probably space the added goodies to hide any obvious seams

Yes, once I knew what to look for, I can see most of the seams.

So... a large flat fondant, run through an edible printer; then trimmed, set on the cake, seams at the corners? Like making a paper box.

I if you click on the images you can make them look bigger. So how some of the cakes have the edible image tearing.. looked like they lay the EI on the fondant then cover? ehh i dont know.

All I know is SOMETHING is photoshopped for the sake of marketing... I see missing pixels and bad color matching...

You could send the company an email by way of their "Contact Us" page on their website and ask if they are willing to share their technique.

To me they look like edibles and then the are retouched with an airbrush so the colors blend on the fondant.
Edna

I just enlarged the photo, the borders of the pics look like edibles when you cut them out. I am almost sure they are edibles. The artwork seems to be specially done to fit the cake decor.
Edna

Cool cakes! It does look like they airbrushed the colors and then applied the edible images to create the whole look. I wonder if it was something like a chocolate transfer sheet that was applied to the cake in one swoop? Let us know if they tell you what they did. Im dieing to know!
Riana great damask cake! Looks like you used the stencils they sell cause it came out so nice!

I was thinking transfer sheets as well. IMO

Has anyone else noticed that EVERY single cake of theirs is square? Except for their cupcakes, but I just thought it was kinda strange that there is only one shape. I wonder if they only sell square cakes lol. I do think they use edible images as well. How can they sell some of those cake that are copyrighted? Is it different in other countries, I doubt it, but just curious.

They only sell a 8" square and a 10" square.

Judi

The fact that they only offer two sizes of sq cakes makes sense if they have a special machine that is printing frosting sheet pix. It's probably the only way they can do that special work.
I know I need new glasses but even looking at the enlarged pix I could not see any seams