i'm trying to do a little 8" round inspired by the merci beacoup cake that was inspired by "my fair lady" (geeze, lotta inspiration going on!) anywho, i used black gumpaste stripes on my white bow but the black wasn't black enough for me. to make it more vibrant i painted on some black americolor airbrush paint. i have naturally very shaky hands, so my brushed bounced around quite a bit making some VERY black black get on my pretty white bow. is there anyway i can get it off? it's basically dry now. i was scared to wipe it while it was wet because i figured a huge ugly smear would be worse. (and before anyone asks, this was a "just because" cake for my house.) any suggestions??

i do believe that everclear or vodka or some type of alcohol. will do it.. wet a soft paper towel... clean where the black is.. find another spot of towel. put more alchohol... wipe again, etc.. keep doing this until it is all off. done it many times.. i have some coconut rum that was given to me. i use it for this all the time... hth don,t reuse the towel . keep it at clean spots with the alcohol.. let us know if it worked..

Unfortunately, it's there for keeps!

Get an exacto knife and chip away it, scrape a little, dig at it...seriously. I've done it before. It can help, just take care not to....WAIT!

Don't you have white airbrush paint?? Paint over it! Do a couple layers!

That's really pretty bythe way!

okay, i don't have any vodka open (well, my dad doesn't. i'm not of age and he keeps his for looks ) so i tried just clear vanilla with a q tip. it worked okay, but it kind of came out a little purple-y which isn't that much of a surprise. i feel like i may have made it worse, but i was told i hadn't. this picture doesn't really show what i'm talking about, but in the the picture it looks a heck of a lot better! i didn't go over all the black spots that needed to be "erased". i'll do more in the morning.
no, i don't have white airbrush paint that was my first thought, but nope... didn't order it. didn't think i'd need it. now that i realize my clumsiness is affecting my cakes this way, it'll get ordered!
i'll try a little of the chipping too and see what i get.
thanks for all the advice!!

oh, and thank you for the compliment jamie!

i'm not so sure about the middle of the bow. i know the merci beacoup cake ribbons had a black center but i don't know if it was solid or what. i just decided to try this out for size... ya know, playing with texture and whatnot. it's not attached on yet, so it may be changed. any thoughts?

unfortunately, the clear vanilla doesn,t work as good as the everclear. or vodka or any kind of alcohol.. but THEY DO WORK!!!!! if you mess up again, please try it. like I said. I do this all the time..

I love the center of the bow. I was looking at it last night and thinking how great it was, but I didn't post because I wasn't too sure how to get the black off.

You might ask your dad to buy you a bottle of cheap vodka or everclear (But everclear might make your dad worry) for cake decorating. You can get small bottles, they're called a half pint bottle, but it's really about 7 ounces, and they're really cheap, at least the vodka is.

thats what i always get... my teacher told me about it 14 yrs.ago. i keep it for just that.. don,t drink myself. its anybody's business if they do...

A Q-tip and water works for me. Lots of Q-tips or a damp brush, stroke the smudge and rinse brush, repeat. The cat face on my Marie was painted on 5 times till I was happy with it. Her eyes were in black with white and blue over that.

so, i ended up just leaving the rest of the black spots. like i said, this was just for my house... just because. i'll get my parents to get me a little bottle of vodka just for cake decorating.
i had issues with this cake (just like all the others...). i couldn't get my royal icing black enough, so i piped it on and painted over it... and we all know how well that works out for me the reason you can see where the garland marker left it's marks is because when i poked the holes, they didn't line up in the back, so i just winged it (knowing full well i'd have stupid annoying holes left. oh well). the "pearls" went okay. except for the fact that i was too lazy to completely roll out all the creases. the pearl airbrush actually looks pretty nice on them. overall, i guess it's not terrible but it's far from great. live and learn!
thanks for all the advice, guys. i really appreciate it!

You, young lady, are going to have the pros in your area sweating some day. Great job, and keep at it!

There are much better decorators in this place than me, but thank you!

Love the design. looks really nice.

I have never used airbrush paint so don't know how stubbon it is but yeh when i am painting on my gumpaste pieces with normal paste colouring i always dab vodka (or whatever else you use) over my mistake and then dab/wipe it away with a dry cotton bud (is that what you call a Q tip?) and most of the time it gets it off decently.

If it doesn't come off the first time i usually have another go at it. But for next time the faster you get it off once you have made the mistake the more easily it will come off and less likely to stain as much i think

....Cotton Buds (or q-tips lol) are my best friend when i am painting intricate stuff cose they are small enough to fit in those small places without wipping everything else off around it