Hats off to all of you that can stencil on cakes. I absolutely love the look of the damask stencils so I had to try it for myself. This might be humorous!

$20 stencil later...and stupid me, I accidently bought the 4.5" stencil which is obviously too tall for my cakes. Lesson learned #1, in all of my excitement of ordering new cake stuff, READ the dimensions I wanted to "practice" on my display cake that I am using for a craft show (selling cupcakes) this weekend. Mind you, I've never stenciled, AND I've never made or used RI.

Lesson 2- This is probably obvious to you veterns, but I'm still fairly new. I covered my dummies last Sunday in a light pink MMF. I added the color to the marshmallows as they were melting and oh how much easier that was then kneading the color in afterwards. Somewhat struggled with my square dummies, but managed ok. Set them on the kitchen table til last night. 3 days later, I come back to faded (in spots) pink fondant squares. YIKES! It was obvious sun damage and not even at all. Oh well I think to myself, kinda looks cool. I'll manage.

Lesson 3- It's time to stencil. I made my brown RI with a recipe I found on here-highly recommended by all you cc'ers. I can't remember the exact name but Antonyia45 or something like that (sorry!) That turned out good, although, in my mind I envisioned RI as something a little more runny-guess I was wrong. Stencil time! Start with the 6" square. The back of course....It goes ok. My friend is helping hold the stencil while I "spackle" the RI on. I pull it off and think...Yikes. We didn't think to center the pattern, nor did we keep it straight. Ok...side 2. Better. So on and so on and I finally get all 3 tiers 6", 10" 14" stenciled. It definitely got better as we went along and I learned a few things along the way.

A few questions for all of you professionals. HOW do you get such great stenciled corners, especially when the stencil is 12" and your cake is larger? How do you get the shine to your RI? Mine is very dull and there a bubbles in some parts of it. Did I not use the right consitency? How do you keep your stencils straight!!!!

I plan to use this stencil again in a few weeks, but I see GSA has a sale on them, so I might buy a different one- one that actually is 4" to fit onmy cakes! It was a learning experience...and when I'm completley done with it, I'll post a pic. Actually, i have one on my phone that I took this morning. The ribbon trim isn't complete yet-it's definitely needed around the clumpy bottoms.

Whew...I just needed to vent to people that KNOW what I'm going through here!! THANKS FOR LISTENING!!!

Are you kidding me?? That looks fabulous!!

I have no idea how to do that! It's most certainly on my "learn to do" list!

If that was your first attempt, I can't wait to see the next one!

Oh thanks MessyBaker!! But the picture is a bit deceiving It doesn't show the messy parts. I'm actually pretty satisfied with it, but I wanted to share my troubles to people that understand...HA! I'm looking forward to doing another one soon! THANKS!!

Your cake looks gorgeous. And, if I might add, pictures NEVER EVER EVER, do cakes justice. You are probably guilty of one thing and one thing only. The same thing most of us are guilty of. Being to hard on ourselves for our experience level. I know I think my cakes should be better to, but I have to keep reminding myself that I've only been at this for about 3 months. Ask yourself, is this up to my experience level. If this is your first time you should be giving yourself a big thumbs up girl cause that cake looks FINE!

I'm looking, I'm looking...so now what's the problem?! Of course I'm not seeing it in person, but I think it looks great & it seems pretty centered to me. Just so you know, very hard to have a PERFECT looking cake. It's the over all effect that gives it the look of perfection.

SO WHAT IS WRONG?????????????? WAS IT NOT SUPPOSE TO BE GORGEOUS.........SHEESH.......HOLY MOSES ITS PERFECT

Just had to pipe in say I agree! It is gorgeous!

its perfect!

Wow.

Just wow.

That's one pretty amazing stencil job. Great work!!!

Now, please make us all feel better and post the back side pics!! LOL

I can't wait to see the next stencil you try

I wish I could stencil like that. I don't even know how. But it looks beautiful!!

After what you wrote I was waiting to see this terrible cake. It looks great! You did a wonderful job.

Thank you all for your kind comments! Trust me though it was a learning experience for sure. I will post the finished product pictures in the morning!

I love it Nice work

Here is a picture of the finished product. I sold cupcakes at a craft show this weekend and used this cake as a display cake. Overall, the show was a success! Hopefully I get some future orders out of all of it! Thanks again for all of your comments!