I'm making a cake for someone who has a very specific icing recipe (its a surprise for his wife, his mo in laws chocolate icing) I normally wouldnt use someone elses recipe but he's very insistant and this is a special cake so he wants it to be her fav.
I'm airbrushing a picture (or painting with dust if I HAVE to) onto this cake, although the recipe calls for milk so it must be refrigerated.. fondant doesnt do too well in the fridge since if it sits out it condensates and goes soft.. but I've never tried chocolate.. I've made the modeling chocolate and its setting in the fridge for practice.. so far it went great.

1. If I paint/dust on fondant/modeling chocolate, when it condensates (as it will have to for the ride to his house) will the picture melt off? (that may sound stupid but I dont wanna mess this up!)

2. Will I be better to risk the fondant going squishy or the chocolate getting so soft it melts? It shouldnt be too hot as long as the ac is on in the car.. but I'm not sure how to approach this predicament I find myself in...

Please Help!

Anything taken out of the fridge will have condensation on it. I would think that it would make a painted image run if painted in water based colors.

What about making the image in a chocolate transfer? Kind of like a buttercream transfer, but done in chocolate? That way it wouldn't run if it has condensation on it.

Or do a RI piece...keep it in a box until the cake is out of the fridge and the condensation has evaporated....then place the image on then?

Or do the painting on a gumpaste plaque that can be placed after the cake is out of the fridge?

The client will be picking up the cake on Friday and the event is Sunday, he will need to store it until then. My modeling chocolate turned to mush after it came out of the fridge, I think I might've put too much corn syrup in it. Can you have a chocolate transfer printed custom? The only one I've seen is for buttercream..

I'm sorry....I don't know the answer to that one. I can only wish you luck-

Sara....why are you storing this cake in the frig? I see you mentioned milk...what part of your recipe contains the milk?

I stored my zebra purse cake in the frig and the zebra stripes and all accents were modeling chocolate and had no issues.

Which modeling chocolate recipe did you use?

Did you paint on top of your modeling chocolate and have no issues when it condensated?

The filling has milk. I used a recipe from a culinary arts book, but when I compared it to other recipes earlier I noticed that it had like double the amount of corn syrup as the others. I'll try to make it again sometime.
Today I found blank acetate sheets that I can hand paint on with cocoa butter then transfer it to the chocolate. I'm going to ganache the cake then transfer the picture to candy melts and place it on top.

I'm going to practice of course, but I think it will give him the effect he wants and be delicious without any issues as well.

Just incase anybody looks at this in the future and wants to know.. I ended up using a chocolate ganache. I mixed the white chocolate and milk chocolate to get a creamy milk color. I took the picture I was emailed and cut around the head so I had the basic shape of the head without messing up the ganache outside of the head. I let the ganache set then airbrushed the outline on.. then very lightly painted on the details to his face. It turned out perfect! I let it set out under a fan for about an hour so it would dry, boxed it up and dropped it off! It did not run when he took it out of the fridge either, as long as the paint wasn't touched.. it stayed perfect! I love this cake! lol
I've upload a picture in my album. The file is too large to attach here.