I love the taste of Swiss Meringue Buttercream and use Gretchen's recipe.  I also love the look of damask stencils on a cake.  Can one successfully stencil with Swiss Meringue on a cake iced with Swiss Meringue?  Should I refrigerate the iced cake (or maybe freeze it) prior to attempting to stencil?

Hey there, 

I actually posted something a couple of weeks ago and have the same question. I haven't tried it yet, but one of the people who posted a reply to me said that it is possible so long as the frosting is very cold. I would say freeze it well and go from there. Maybe alternate layers? Decorate one, put it back in the freezer while you work on other layers, rotate accordingly... 

If you give it a try, I would really like to hear how it comes out. I'm anxious to try it myself but my stencil hasn't arrived yet. 

Thanks, kentylbp.  I think I will try it on the top of a small test cake.  I'll let you know how it turns out.

You can, but that's right that the cake has to be really cold so that the icing doesn't come off. You need to work fast because meringue buttercreams will warm up and the stencil pressed against the icing can ruin the surface.

@costumeczar ‍ Is there an issue with condensation ruining the stenciled image when the cake comes to room temp?

There could be if you're stencilling with food coloring, but if you use icing it should be fine.

i've not done damask on smbc but if i did i think i'd first try freezing the stencil and the cake so they start out the same temp maybe -- and i would use the stencil in small sections -- 

but no really what i would do is make some kick ass american buttercream that is not cloyingly sweet let it crust and slap the stencil on that -- i ain't going nutso over stenciling non crusting buttercream -- it'd be a very short trip --

i have hovered stencils over smbc that i sprayed with my airbrush --

i wish you the best but wow one wrong move and ouch -- i'd be surprised if it could be done with much repetition -- but go ahead and surprise me

y'know this would be a time when a scraped off naked cake would work for me -- then put the damask on top of that -- the possibility of the cake icing getting pulled up when you remove the stencil  could be disguised by the quirkiness of the scraped off naked cake surface ... probably -- at least a lot better than smoothy smooth icing -- don't you think

K8memphis - Going to try today on a small test cake that I'm planning for my Grandson.  He wants a "camping" cake.  Going to make a "fire" on the top with Pirouette Rolled Cookies as logs and shards of candy "glass" for flames.  The icing will be dark chocolate SMBC with stenciled light green trees on the sides.  The stencil is a single tree instead of a wrap-around, so I'm hopeful.  You are probably right about a full wrap around damask.  And if it doesn't work, I'll decorate with fondant trees.   But it is fun to try.

nana -- i got my pom poms out and i'm rooting for yah cheering you on :)

so thinking this through -- i would...  ugh oh i'm getting aggravated with my imaginary results just thinking it through let's just go back to the first sentence >big grin<

can't wait -- go nana

@K8memphis, thanks for the cheers.  I DID IT!  Had a smallish stencil - a tree.  Froze the cake iced in SMBC for about 10 minutes between each stencil application.  Since this cake was just for family it was a great time to test and I'm happy to say it worked very well.  YAY!

job well done -- happy for you