I'm making a first birthday cake for a friend's daughter this weekend.

She wants a white cake with strawberries & creme filling, with a whipped cream frosting rather than buttercream.

The cake she wants me to make is two layers (10/7). I'm going to put some gumpaste gerberas on it and I need to be able to pipe a simple border, probably just large dots with a #12. (She gave me a picture of what she wants)

I've never used whipped cream frosting, so I'm not sure what to expect in terms of stacking & piping. Also, the recipes I've searched for on the site seem to either get not-so-hot reviews or have weird ingredients (gelatin, cream cheese, etc.)

I could really use a couple of pointers. Heat isn't really an issue - I'll keep the cake refrigerated and then it's being taken to the venue which has air conditioning, and it's only going to be around 75 here anyhow this weekend.

TIA!

I use an imitation whip cream base. Like Pastry Pride, Whip N Top, etc. Not sure what your planning on using. My daughter does not like buttercream either.

You can beat it alone but to ensure that it holds up nicely and stiff enough for the decorations, I add about about 2 tablespoons of Merinque Powder (egg whites) and 1 - 1 1/2 cups of powdered sugar. Then beat well. It will take a little longer to beat the bc but does get stiff enough even to make roses.

When I want to add some lite weight fondant accents I make sure my cake has been iced at least 4hrs before, It sets up and will hold them without the falling off but like I said they do need to be small and lightweight.

HTH

Oh another thing I thought of, if your whip cream stays to porus (heavy texture) run a spatula under very hot water, shake off excess water and run along your cake, This will smooth it out.

The whip cream icing is not as forgiving as bc, so once it has set when you want to cover up a mistake if you run your spatula over it, it often pulls the icing. This technique will come in handy for that.