Hello everybody, I need help in figuring out how the details on this cake were done! I simply love it, but I have no idea how she did it. Maybe just painting over gumpaste, or white chocolate, if any of you know I truly appreciate the help! Here is the link:
http://www.gateaux-inc.com/details/Montmartre.htm

Thank you.

actually not all "that" hard if you are good at painting (or want to do edible images attached to gumpaste)

a quick look at her other cakes reveals a pattern:

gumpaste (or similar) hand cut and hand painted, sometimes shaped and then applied to cake.

so on this one:

a light tan fondant.
then rag roll or sponge with a thinned out brown to get the mottled effect (just like doing with paint on walls but at much small scale) or a white fondant and several shades of brown rag rolled (white might be better -- see below)

make all the gumpaste cut outs and paint away (or create edible images and attached to gumpaste and cut out and apply after hard)

the little bricks & cracks are directly hand painted on to the cake (hint -- this is where white MIGHT be better. Could do as duff and others do and take little pieces of painters tape to mask off the locations of bricks and thereby have a white background to get a more vibrant color for bricks.)

cathedral -- small square cake with gumpaste panels.

dome -- I'd mold over top of miniwonder pan

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i'd probably wimp out and do the edible images -- my hand is no where steady enough to do that level of painting -- but if you can, go for it.

For the cake, you could also do a dry brush tech. with shades of brown. Use a stiff brush, like a stencil brush, dip the ends in food coloring (I would think the gel type Americolor would work), then tap on a paper towel to get most off. Brush onto cake. The shading comes from tapping more or less off.

If you check out the Whimsical Bakehouse book (the original one) there is a whole section in there about white chocolate. I think that's another method of achieving the look for the cut outs.

wow - thanks for the link to that site! these cake artists are amazing! i do love the cake you found, but boy do I love all of them!

thanks for asking the question about that amazing cake! So inspiring! Can't wait till i can make cakes like that! (ha! I wish!!!!)

~diem

Thank you so much for all of your responses. I'll try all the suggestions and post the pictures of my tests later on, and I'll definitely check the book as well. Thanks again, I have a good idea where to start now. You guys rock!