So my cousin asked me to make her wedding cake and her theme is vintage. It's going to be a 5 tier oval cake. Four of the five tiers are going to be dummies. They are all going to be covered in off white fondant!

The top tier she wants strands of pearls to make it look like necklaces. What's the best way to go about that? Using fake pearl necklaces? Or is there a way to make pearl strands out of something edible?

The second tier is going to be a lace applique with (not sure what it's actually called) but basically broaches that she's going to buy molds for.

The bottom three are just going to be all lace applique. Here's my question with this.. Can I do this in advance? Cover them in fondant and apply the applique's? And if so how far in advance?

We just started planning so there's not a lot to go by but I want to figure it out so I have a game plan! Thanks in advance!

You could make edible pearl necklaces, but I doubt you would find edible string. You could make the pearls out of fondant or gumpaste, roll out little balls and make holes in the centre of them with a cocktail stick or clean needle. Leave them to dry and then spray or paint them with edible shimmer or lustre dust. Then string them on cotton (But remember that the string is NOT edible)

Did you mean "Cameos" when you said about broaches? You could push gumpaste into the molds to make them.

and I found this link all about lace appliques,
http://wn.com/sugarveil

HTH

Yes Cameo is was I was looking for! And that's what I figured for the pearls but there's no way I would be able to make them all the same size. So I might go with strands of pearls instead, they're going to be on a dummy layer anyways!

Ah! Thats ok then if they are going to be on dummy cakes, don't want someone munching on real pearls do we?

Thanks for the help! Any other suggestions would be greatly appreciated!

You can cover the dummies at any time - - now, if you want. BUT - - keep in mind that if you're not going to airbrush or use dusts, you've got to color enough fondant all at the same time to cover the cake completely. That way, one or two tiers won't be different colors. For off-white, though, dusts or airbrushing would be the easiest way to go.

There are molds for pearl strands that would make them all the same size if you want to go completely edible.

Sounds like a big project - - Good Luck!

For pearls, you can also use pearl dragees (sugar balls, edible but hard on the teeth).