Hello,

I am making a 3 tier fondant covered cake which is going to be covered in sugar crystals and piped with design. My question is:

Do I cover the fondant in sugar crystals first and then pipe the decoration over the crystals after? Or do I pipe my decoration and then proceed to cover the cake in sugar crystals after.

I was planning on covering with sugar crystals by brushing clear piping gel over the fondant as well.

Please help! Thank you :)

Wow. The crystals will not be friendly to piping. And if you pipe first and brush that with piping gel it will distort the piping.

What I would try maybe is to pipe with royal icing and then let it set up and then see what happens when you brush with piping gel and apply crystals.

Test as in on a scrap of fondant not on your cake.

Unless the piping is in a different color I don't know how much will show through the crystals though.

But maybe if the piping is not too fine--after the crystals and piping gel crust up you should be able to pipe over that. So do two tests.

I would pipe the decoration first then cover the cake in clear sugar crystals. The sugar crystals shouldn't cover-up the decoration since they're clear.

Or you can cover the fondant in clear piping gel and go around the decoration, then cover the cake in clear sugar crystals and the decoration would stand out a little more since it would have a different texture.

Hope this helps!