What's everyone's preference? I've seen cakes with both. Will be doing a wedding cake this weekend for a friend, who likes the white-on-white swirls. Cake will be iced in BC. Would really appreciate any insight!! Does one hold up better? Is one easier to pipe smaller details with? TIA!!!

I prefer RI because it's easy to manipulate with a paintbrush once it's on the BC (if you have to!), it's shiny, it has a very rich look. To me, the BC swirls maintain a textured look that I just don't care for. The RI sets very smooth...very elegant look. JMO.

I always use BC. You already have it made, why not use it. Besides I dont really care for the texture difference. Your eating a piece of cake with yummy buttercream on it, then you bite into a hard piece of egg flavored sugar. egh. I dont use RI unless the design really calls for it.

I always use BC. You already have it made, why not use it. Besides I dont really care for the texture difference. Your eating a piece of cake with yummy buttercream on it, then you bite into a hard piece of egg flavored sugar. egh. I dont use RI unless the design really calls for it.

Thanks for your input! I am thinking the BC may be the way to go - I don't need the royal for anything else in the near future, so it might be too much trouble this time to make it...and this bride does not seem particularly picky...so the texture thing is not going to be an issue for her...(maybe one day when I am doing 10 weddings a week and am super famous I will need to be more precise and use RI! haha!)

I use BC for everything. Don't use RI for anything. BC for borders, scrolls, roses, flowers, stringwork, etal.

I had to throw in my vote for the RI camp. Maybe it's cause it doesn't melt on me in the Texas heat, or maybe from my years of cookie decorating experience when using it. I prefer the clean look of it and it's really not that hard to make... at least my recipe anyway! Just a little pasteurized egg whites, a little lemon juice, and some PS. The lemon juice takes away that egg taste and makes a little bit more exotic. You can get different thicknesses going and it's so easy to work with. If you happen to get the little points on it, just dab your finger in some cornstarch or PS and push it in before it sets.

I am with Indy on this one too. I am not a fan of hard crunchy icing on my soft cake. I use buttercream for everything too. I have used the RI on my sugar cookies for design, but that is about it.

I piped royal on buttercream once for the scrolls but only because the cake was white and the scrolls were black. My theory was that the royal would dry quickly and prevent any bleeding into the white. I didn't have any bleeding with the royal, and maybe I wouldn't have with BC either, but I didn't want to find out the hard way!!!

I recently attended a wedding where they had a brown cake with ivory swirls all over it, but the white swirls had turned mostly brown from "icing bleeding." Keep in mind, I didn't make this cake, but I felt really bad for the person who did and I've been wondering all week how one would prevent this from happening. I'm thinking if the swirls had been RI, maybe it wouldn't have happened. Anyone have experience with this??

TIA

So, if I just make sure that the base frosting has crusted before I add decor like scrolls, there shouldn't be any bleeding?

Thanks, Indy! I always appreciate your input!

Mandy

I've never had bleeding so I can only assume having a good crusting icing is the trick!

Sure thing cakebaker1957!

3 egg whites
1 TBSP lemon juice
3 cups of powdered sugar, more or less

Mix the egg whites and lemon juice, then add the PS until you get the consistency you want; if you're doing scroll work or fine detail work, you may nee closer to 4 cups.

The theory is that the acid from from the lemon juice kills any bacteria from the eggs, but I have switched to pasteurized egg whites recently as I am starting to build my business and prefer not to run any risk If you use pasteurized egg whites, you can use less lemon juice. I have found the egg whites in a carton at the store and I follow the measuring guide on the side to measure out three egg whites. You can use any concentrated color gel that you want, I use Wilton and Americolor. This recipe doesn't require too much.

Hope this helps and I hope you like it! If you don't, no hard feelings! While I haven't diverted from the usual standard recipe above, I would be willing to bet you could add cocoa powder to get chocolate RI or even add some oils/extracts to get different flavors.

You're welcome! It's super duper easy to make which is why I love it and it sets up very nicely. I'd play with it to see what consistency works best for you, I like it a little bit thick for detail work and writing so that it doesn't spread too much. For writing I use the smallest round tip, tip 2 I think, and that helps prevent any spreading in case I've made it too thin.

As for keeping your BC from melting off or sliding around too much, I'm still trying to master that myself! This Texas heat wave is killing me and my cakes!

thanks!

Thanks for all the input about the scrolls! I just finished my first wedding cake! YAY!! And I did end up doing the scrolls, etc. in the BC. Worked quite well, and the tone-on-tone looks nice, I think...besides the texture issue, the color would never have matched...so this time it was BC for me!

And I'm so glad to know about the crusting thing for doing black & red, and other dark colors. Indy - you are such a wealth of knowledge...what a great resource for all of us! Thank you again for sharing it!!

I would use whichever one YOU have more control with and can pipe neater. I've used both....

Jennifer