Well ... the bride couldn't get the polka dotted dresses she wanted, so now she is talking plaid and wants black and white plaid for her cake. I've searched and the consensus seems to be "paint it" ... I don't see how that will work for black and white, so any suggestions/advice would be greatly appreciated!

I haven't seen a picture of the dresses so I don't have a clue what the plaid looks like, but they will definitely be black and white. She is using red roses and doesn't want any other color on the cake.

TIA!

aine2 does a tutorial where she shows how she painted (or maybe used food writer pens now i cant remember) the plaid on a kilt...i guess it all depends if you use white fondant with black plaid or vice versa or both...i think it would have to be one or the other though, if she doesn't want any other colors in the cake.

unless you do various sizes of fondant strips, from the spaghetti thin to much wider?

Here's her tutorial:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6CC4m5neNkE&feature=PlayList&p=81DDD9C9171A19ED&playnext=1&playnext_from=PL&index=92

I think painting black onto white fondant/gumpast will be much prettier then painting white onto black fondant.

Thanks! I started watching Lorraine's tutorial (aine2), but I have carpal tunnel really bad and I don't see how I could draw paint/draw that many lines and have it look okay. Plus, she wants the plaid to be on the black tiers. The other two tiers will be white with black dots. I'm going to play with some criss-crossing fondant stripes and see if I can find something to work. I appreciate the suggestions.

My good friend (bride's aunt) said that she is sure the design will change several more times - we started out with b&w alternating tiers and dots ... I want to figure out something that will work for the point in time when I say no more changes!

Another idea could be to print black/white plaid with an edible printer and wrap the cake with it.

Do you have an air brush? If so Roland Winbeckler has a striped stencil that you could use then turn it to get the cross stripe and and you would have plaid. I don't think it will be easy to pain white over black fondant though.

I don't have an airbrush, but Culinary Stencils has a stencil that works the same way. I have stenciled onto buttercream and I hear that it is much easier to stencil onto fondant. If I go that direction, I could probably get away with stenciling black onto white fondant. I'll have to play around some and see what happens - send the bride pictures and see what she thinks.

Thanks for the ideas!

You could also look for a black/white plaid chocolate wrap.

I've thought about ribbon. I've also thought about doing a chocolate transfer, but I haven't ever done one and really don't want to try something totally new on a wedding cake.