I have a week to do my first cake dummy ... for my first cake competition and I am doing it in stages (right now I'm making flowers for the next few days).
I am considering putting appliques on the cake. But I have a question. Would it be best to make and place the appliques right after I cover the dummies in fondant, or can I make them in advance, let them dry, and then attach them with gum glue?
Problem is, I don't have many hours in the evening to work on this, so I'm trying to do what I can in advance. Any advice?
Also, if I want to do borders in royal icing, should I do those onsite? And, since I will be stacking my cake, should I attach the tiers with royal icing?
Thanks in advance for your help. I am new at this!
Be blessed!

If you are making them ahead, be sure to let them dry on a dummy that is the same size as the one you will be putting them on. If you dry them flat, they won't conform to the curve of your cake. If you can't do that, I'd suggest cutting them out and applying them right away, so they dry in their proper form and place.

If you are stacking before transporting, by all means do your RI borders ahead of time. It will dry hard. I usually attatch my tiers to each other with RI when making dummy cakes.

HTH

Duplicate post, please also see:

http://www.cakecentral.com/cake-decorating-ftopict-646031-.html

HTH