I can't wait to get stuck into cake decorating, ideally i'd love to do character cakes with sugarpaste/fondant icing figures like Masie parrish (who is awesome!!!) but i have so many questions i'd love answers to before i get going! sooooo.......
1. are all cakes ie maderia/ fruit/ chocolate alrite to cover in sugarpaste and sculpt?
2. after a cake is baked how long until you put icing and decoration on and then how long until it is inedible and out of date?
3. Is there a way to stop for example the jam and buttercream inside a victoria sponge from "splurging" out of the sides. is there an ideal jam or buttercream mix to stop this and keep the filling relatively firm?
4. is the dust used to paint and shade figures edible?....are figures made to be eaten!?????!
5. are there some basic definate NO NO'S in cake decorating.....

Iv'e got loads more but i'm an absolute beginner so anyhelp at all will really be appreciated!
thankoo
xxx

Hi and welcome to cc. I'll try to answer a few of your questions and hopefully others can too. Most cakes are ok to cover in fondant. I usually decorate after the cake is fully cooled before decorating. To keep your filling from squishing out you need to use a thick dam of icing.(very stiff buttercream) pipe it around the inside edges of the cake then add filling. make sure the filling does not come uo any higher than the dam. Some figures can be eaten if made of fondant. All dusts used to paint figures should be edible. A definate no no is selling cakes without a license and selling character cakes, ex: mickey mouse,pooh dora. They are all copy righted and you can get in trouble for that. Good luck! HTH!

I wanted to add there are lots of tutorials here on cc. There are videos on youtube to learn from, just type in cake decorating and you'll find lots of helpful tips. HTH!

oh those are good questions. i'm a beginner too, and maybe my questions can be answered here too?
i want to know, is gum paste edible? and what do you make with it. i've read that they make figures out of it, but what's the difference between making figures from gum past, vs. fondant?

welcome animeanna1! I have never used gumpaste. It dries hard and I am pretty sure no one eats it! I think it's more for decorating. When I made the trees for one of my cakes I used fondant mixed with tylose powder to make the fondant firm and they dried hard. Hopefully someone can come along with more info.

I have another question, I am new to cakes and in a lot of descriptions there is the abbreviation RI what does this stand for?

most of the abbreviations will show their definition if you hover your mouse over them. new feature. gotta love it!

gumpaste is definitely more of a "for looks" substance. if you want your characters (or whatever decorations you're making) to be able to actually be eaten, you would make them out of straight fondant.

gumpaste: dries quickly, dries ROCK hard, can be rolled out very, very thing (perfect for gumpaste flowers)

as for the other questions i think tiffany handled them pretty well

what does it mean to torte a cake???....

To Torte a Cake means to divide the layers horizontally making 2 cake layers into 4 lcake layers.

To ensure straight even layers, I use a Cake Leveler. Once my cake layers has cooled compeletely out of the pan. I place the leveler next to it, line the wire so it is in the middle of the layer and gently moving back and forth with a sawing motion until the layer has been halved.

Makes for a better looking and tasting cake in my personal opinion. I torte all of my cakes.

Thanks adree313 and tatorchip!!