AHi I'm going to be attempting to make and decorate my daughters 2nd birthday cake with doc mcstuffins characters. This will be the first time I've used regal icing for anything other than just covering a cake!

So i have a few questions.. can i mix two premade colours of icing e.g red and yellow to make orange? I'm trying to keep costs down and after looking at my 'drawing' of the potential cake the list of colours involved is as long as my arm!! (I may have been abit adventurous but what do they say the skys the limit and all that ;) ) if the mixing of two colours isn't possible then i may have to rethink the design.

What do i use to adhere them to the cake when there made? (I'm going for a semi 3d look around the cake)

As you can probably tell i'm new to all this but i'm very creative and artistic and have done plenty of modeling with clay etc so i think i get the concept of the 'modeling' part but any tips and pointers of all aspects will be very much appreciated! :) Thanks!

i've never used the brand your talking about, but in theory, you should be able to mix two colors together to get a third. the problem will come if the hue or tone is different than what you are trying to achieve, and you can use a lot of frosting trying to fix a color that didn't come out, wasting money in the long run.

to me, it makes more sense to start with white buttercream and color small batches. this way, you use less frosting and less color for a better taste and presentation. paste color is not very expensive and goes very far. if you will be making more cakes, it's a guarantee that you will use it all. 

you don't have to have every color. this is where your mixing skills will come in handy. you can use an artists color wheel, or if you can find a used copy of "the whimsical bakehouse" cookbook, there is a great color mixing chart in there. 

jen

AHi jen

I think its like fondant, its ready to roll (I'm in the UK which might make more sense!) The colours i need are only small quantities which is why i thought it may have been more cheaper to mix than buy the all ready precoloured icing as i more than likely wouldn't use the rest anytime soon.

I think ill give it a go but only with small amounts and my fingers crossed!!

Danielle x

Yes you can mix pre-made colours of fondant/sugarpaste, no problem. To make orange though, I would add small pieces of red to the yellow until you get the orange you want. Don't just use half yellow, half red, since the colour saturation in the sugarpastes change from colour to colour ;)

To make your modelling easier, and especially if using Renshaw's regal-ice which is a bit soft, see if you can buy some CMC powder at a cake decorating shop. This will make your paste more elastic and it will dry harder than plain sugarpaste. Use 1/2 teaspoon per 250g.

To attach your figures to your cake - depends on how big they are! You can put cocktail sticks or raw spaghetti in their legs before they dry, which you would then insert into the cake. If you do this you will need some polystyrene or something to stick them into as they dry. You could use royal icing to stick them to the cake board or up against the sides of the cake. 

Good luck!

AThank you :) i had a feeling that mixing two colours together would be very similar to mixing paint and by the sounds of it, it is. Which i am very familiar with thank god!!

The models wont be 'free standing' they'll be stuck to the side so they wont be that big. I never thought of using regal! Durr!!

Its Dr Oekter regal icing would you say i need to use the cmc powder with it? I don't want them to be rock hard with it being mainly toddlers that will be eating the cake, how far in advanced can i make the figures?

Thanks i think i may need a little bit of luck with this!

Danielle x

You can try it without CMC, to see if it works for you. Straight sugarpaste will not dry as hard as if you add CMC, but it will be a little bit trickier to work with. However if you are only making small figures you should be ok ;) If you have time, make them just a couple of days before the party.

I've used Regalice many times to make figures etc, and it dries fine without any additional hardeners.  Just support it well and give it a good couple of days to dry if it is a thick, solid, free-standing model, or less if it is thinner or not needing to support itself.

Athanks guys. I was abit scared about these models before coming on here I'm so glad i found this before i started! I'm actually pretty excited about doing it and I'm wondering whether 2 weeks before the party is too early to start making them ;)

Where should i store them when there done? I just hope they resemble doc mcstuffins and not some weird looking blobs!

Danielle x