I've been asked by a bride to do a stencil on her cake in buttercream of a specific Danish flower pattern.

https://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/hZ6Qne8c2WKogF4b-EI2txStSis83er1LRYbypFCpws?feat=directlink

How would you do this? She wants it exact.

I've never done a stencil, but how hard can they be? Anyway, what I don't know is how to get a custom one made, what they generally cost. She wants all 4 colors, is this even possible? And BTW, to make stuff harder I only market and sell SMBC, so I assume I'll have to do this in Royal icing to get the vibrant colors, but how to do the multiple colors? Get 4 different stencils made? Lay one on top of the other?

I also own a Cricut, what about making my own using Cricut? Would I be able to buy the blank sheets and cut my own? I tried a Google search but didn't find blank ones.

Thanks!

What about cutting it out of fondant with the Cricut and putting it around the cake in applique' style?

She does not want fondant. I have offered this option to her, as well as having it printed onto an edible image and put on a fondant ribbon. No bueno.

Oh, and have any of you airbrushed on top of SMBC? Are their oil-based colors that you can use in an airbrush? I can only find water-based, which will bead up on SMBC I think.

I do not know much about stenciling on a cake, but when stenciling on walls etc. was popular I both did the stenciling and worked in a stencil store.
I now see that the same companies that sold wall stencils are making stencils for cakes and cookies, so it must be the same.
Here is how we made our own stencils:
Purchased stiff but thin plastic called mylar from art stores or online.
Trace the pattern on the plastic with a pencil or a felt tip pen.
Simple designs may be cut with a craft knife, but complex designs were easy to do with a tool for stencil cutting, much like the ones for wood burning designs.
We always made a separate overlay for each color and traced the entire design on all of them but only cut out the spaces for one color so that the overlay of the stencil was exact, and the second color would not accidently bleed into the other color space.

Back in the day some companies did do custom work but we never used them as we were able to design and cut our own.

Some of the best companies were Designer Stencils and Jan Dressler. I think Designer Stencils is still in business and is making the cookie and cake stencils. You could google them.

HTH

Yes, you can make stencils with the cricut. I use Make The cut software and Grafix Clear-Ply Plastic Film .005 However, edible images would be much easier to do with all those colors.

Another possible idea could be to print out an edible image and then just cut out the design part of the image, minus the white background, and arrange that on your cake, and that way you wouldnt have the bright background on the image to compete with the ivory icing. I actually did that with the Scrabble cake I made I cut the image of the word scrabble out from the edible image (actually let it dry a bit first , removed the backing, and then cut - if its not too dry it will cut fine Used a Cutter Bee scissor and an Exacto blade) With mine, I put my pieces on gumpaste/fondant, and then re-cut the gumpaste/fondant using the edible image as a guide.

Im betting with this process it could be placed directly on a cake (no fondant). Although with how intricate your design is, it might be a real pain in the rear. It was a lot of work, and I would definitely experiment first, but I really liked the end result in my case. BTW, after that I painted a layer of luster dust/vodka mixture over the edible image.

If you have time to try this I would make an American buttercream and try frozen buttercream transfers for the tulips and the blue flowers then pipe the green. I would buy the Wilton pre-made red to get the bright color. I don't see why fondant accents would b a problem. Personally I'd test run the options I have equipment for on a dummy or even paper and show her BC vs fondant. I bet she goes with the fondant and it would be so much easier for you. It's a great look for a cake.

Thanks for all your replies!!!!

I actually thought about a buttercream transfer, but boy that would scare the bejeasus out of me doing that on the side of a wedding cake... and for 3 tiers! I wish I had the piping skills to just pipe the thing, but alas I am not that great.

I was thinking I'd do royal icing so I can get the vibrant colors.

She went with me because of my SMBC, and like I said I don't do crusting. although it would make my like tons easier sometimes!

Any other ideas that have not been mentioned?

How does she feel about candy clay or modeling chocolate?

Just had another thought. I have never tried it but I bet it would work. Make rolled buttercream and roll it out , stick it in the freezer and cut things out like fondant. People do it all the time for cookies. I would use the SMBC for the cake but not worry too much about the accents being SMBC. I would test applying the rolled buttercream to make sure it doesnt bleed but other than that, I think it might work

If you can't bet the film in the art dept. you can order it online.

It just occured to me that you could copy the picture into paint and change the background to ivory and then get it printed as an edible image! Problem solved!

Allrighty, this is what I came up with...

I can get this cut into a custom single stencil for $100.

I can get this cut into an overlay stencil for airbrushing for $150.

I told this to the bride, she asked if I could just pipe in buttercream. Told her that is not my strong suit. I'm sure many of you could pipe this pattern, but I would not trust myself to do this on a wedding cake. If I could I would charge a heck of a lot more for my services!

So, I tried hand-painting on a fondant ribbon. Circles are HARD to paint, so I am going to do a combination of fondant and hand painting. I'm putting together a sample tomorrow and will post pics for critique, if you all don't mind!

Thanks,

Jen