I'm going to be taking filled and frozen cake tiers 8 hours from home and decorating them the next day for an evening wedding. The cake will be iced in buttercream, and then I'll place pre-made (from a stencil) individual damask pieces on the sides. I was trying to decide between using royal or Colorflow to make these, but forum posters have convinced me that royal is better. What I am wondering about is how the royal pieces will hold up on the buttercream, and for how long. Would they make it for eight hours before breaking down? If I brushed the backs with piping gel, would that help insulate them from the buttercream? Will the color run? (It's black on white.)

Placing black RI pieces on something that is white is going to be tricky. I have rock hard black RI dots I made a long time ago, like months. If I even look at them, my fingers get black. Be careful that you don't touch the white cake while handling them. It will be tricky. The second your finger touches the black RI, the color is on your finger.

Thanks for the heads-up on that. I hadn't even considered that problem!