I was approached by a co-worker about doing a cake for her daughter's wedding reception. The colors are purple, black, & white. She wanted the cake to be: 1 tier, pure white, 1 tier purple, 1 tier black. On the outside of the cake she wanted Black fondant with a koi fish on it.

I told her that I am not an artist and I can't draw worth crap. I came up with a Koi pattern in black & white, but my problem is transferring the koi pattern onto black fondant and then creating a gradient pattern of white and purple for the fish.

I managed to talk her out of the black cake but not the black fondant. I also let her know what type of expense she'll be facing with this cake. She said to me, "You mean to tell me that i'll be paying more for the cake than I did for the reception?" Wow! BTW, I attempted to pain the fish in the colors requested and tried to do the gradient effect and screwed it up completely.

I can do the cake, but the koi is a different story all together. Can anyone in CakeLand help me with transferring a koi fish pattern on a black fondant cake and then painting the koi with a gradient effect.

Sorry this is so long, but I desperately need help.


Crystal

I would use a piece of white fondant and paint it as needed and then attach it to the cake. It would be raised off the black fondant just the thickness of the fondant you used.

As for the cake, she wants the actual cake to be white, purple and black? YUCK! Personally, I would steer her away from that. As a guest at the reception, if I were served either black or purple cake, it'd sit right there on the plate! I mean after all, what flavor is purple? Or black for that matter?

Painting it on a fondant or gp plaque is one way.
Another way would be to print a pic of the fish onto edible paper and put that either on a plaque or directly onto the cake.

Now if that order was mine I'd be talking her out of the blk fondant and doing a dark, dark chocolate cake But then, maybe you are right as there will be guests with black tounges and/or teeth! Not exactly an elegant wedding look

I'd pipe it directly on the cake with two-tone buttercream in a pastry bag.

I did a koi fish once and did the shading by layering scales (little circles cut with the end of a large round piping tip) on top of the basic fish shape, then shading the circles with petal dust. Fish was yellow-gold, scales were dusted with orange and red dust. I think you might be able to get the gradient effect doing something like that, or cutting your scales out of different shades of fondant.

UPDATE:

I'm no longer making the cake. YIPEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE. It apparently costs too much for a custom cake to be mad and I was only charging her what it would cost to purchase everything needed for the cake. I guess the cost of the fondant scared her. Oh well.

Any way, thanks fellow CC'ers you're always there when needed.

Crystal

wow, this seems for the best, baking for coworkers can be sticky, good luck with your next caking venture.