I have a couple cakes to do for next weekend and need some help.

I am doing on cake with vertical pinstripes (like on the cover of Mich Turner's Spectacular cakes) and the other is tiffany pearls..dots (inside Mich's book). The cakes will be buttercream (as requested) not fondant. In the book, they use royal icing on fondant.

My question is what would be best to do the stripes and dots with? Buttercream or royal icing? I really don't care for the taste of royal icing (i don't like the meringue powder taste). Is there anything else that you would recommend? Would Toba's glaze work on a cake?? I am pretty new to decorating and any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Kim

Would you be able to do fondant accents on the cake? That way most of it will be buttercream. I would think it would be tricky to get perfect pinstripes using the buttercream. I wish I could see a pic of the cakes, then maybe I could be more help.

This is a pic of the cover of the book as well as a pic of another example of the pinstripe or candystripe design on a cake that is in the book.

Kim

This is a pic of the cover of the book. This is one of the designs I am attempting. I can't find a good pic of the other, but it is just dots spaced evenly around the whole cake.

Kim

Oopps..sorry about the double post and double pics on the first post. I'm still learning how to post pics in forums.

Kim

I did a cake similar to this in all bc. I rounded the top edges and piped in bc. I started at the top and pulled the icing to the base of the cake. It worked for me. I don't see why you would need to do anything but bc on a bc cake like this. I love the book and all the ideas. I have experimented with the pearl using crusting bc and let it crust over and brushing on luster dust/vodka paint to get them pearlized. Again, all in buttercream. HTH

Thanks jlynnw... I am going to do a test run tomorrow using buttercream.

Any other suggestions?? Anyone??

If you have some specific questions, you might want to pm buttercreamjean. Might be bcreamjean. She is the buttercream queen. She will probably have lots of information for you.

I am horrible w/buttercream so I can't offer much advice of my own. Would suggest trying to pre-mark lines. Piping that straight and even is really, really tough. At least for me!!!

Good luck!

i've done a cake with BC pinstripes on BC frosting. not that difficult, just need a steady hand.

a few of my stripes were slightly crooked at the beginning or ending points, but they were not very visible.

How about using a Sugarcraft Gun and fondant (with a little copha/vegetable fat kneaded in)? You can press out the stripes, lift them and apply to the cake.
Best wishes,
Cheryl

O.K. Sorry; I guess I used a brand name.
Anyway, there are gadgets you can buy from cake decorating shops that enable you to press out cylinders, ropes, ribbons, hair, grass, etc, etc. from fondant and other pastes.
Cheryl

One favorite brand is Makins, which you can get at your local Hobby Lobby, sometimes with a 40% off coupon.

That is...if you are allowed to do some fondant on the cake.

to mark your cake, I used an impression roller like for grosgrain ribbon and a #2 tip. I also set a cake board on top of the cake an lightly, ever so lightly marked the cake so that I had the same point on top.

Thanks everyone for the tips. I will be sure to post pics when I'm finished.