My nephew is getting married on November 7th and I want to start decorating the dummy cake now . Is that a good ideal or is that just to early? It's a 4 tier all chocolate covered fondant. And what is the best this to use butter cream or piping gel?

Why are you doing a dummy instead of real cake? Just curious.

Anyway, to stick fondant to a dummy you just need to spritz the styro w/ water.

He wants the 4 tier just for the head table to be displayed and then I will then be making a slab cake for the mid night buffet table.

Just lightly mist the dummy with water. The fondant will stick wonderfully. If you get too much water on it, the fondant will tear, melt and fall off.

I've been reading more of the forums and I noticed a lot of people talking about using cisco is that better then just water? and is it to early to start working on it now?

It isn't too early. Gives you plenty of time for fixing any mistakes. I always just mist with water and have had no problems and it's free...crisco costs.

I'll go with the free one ..lol Thank you!

When I did my cake dummy, I used pink house insulating foam. On the first cake, I just rubbed some Crisco on it. It still showed some of the imperfections in the foam. On the next two tiers, I did like a crumb coat of icing (just enough to smooth out the imperfections. They turned out much better. It was entered into our local fair and was displayed for 7 days. It held up great. I don't know that I would have wanted it to sit around any longer than that though. The buttercream probably would have started causing issues. If you do use just water, it will probably last longer (you just want to make sure your foam is nice and smooth. Fondant alone will keep a long time, but your decorations depending on what they are made out of may not. Royal Icing holds up great. But I still don't think I would make it much more than maybe a week in advance. But that's just me.

Ive had good luck with a VERY thin layer of piping gel on styro dummies, Ive had them a month in advance with no problem, that is what the instructor in my fondant decorating class taught us to do.

good luck!

I only make faux cakes with styrofoam.

Make sure you soften the upper edge of the foam. Side edges as well if square. You can do this by using a piece of fine sandpaper. If you do not do this the sharp edge may tear your fondant.

If there are any large gouges, fill with a bit of buttercream or royal.

Spritz with water and apply fondant. Trim and let the layers rest a few hours before you handle them. If not you may dimple the soft fondant with your fingers.

To stack the layers I just use a bit of piping gel in the centre of each layer.

The cake also looks more uniform if you cover the cake board as well with fondant.

Once the cake is complete just cover loosely with a plastic bag to keep the dust off.

Thanks Everyone I started the bottom layer and because the cake is in chocolate fondant and all pleated you can't see and imperfections it actually looks great . I just used the water seems to be holding up well.

Thank you all for your advise.

Susy