A customer of mine wants a 4 tier quinceinera cake covered in gold fondant. Is there an easier way to do this other than painting the entire thing with vodka and luster dust?

airbrush

If you don,t have an airbrush, either pme or lucks products has gold sheen in spray cans. chefmaster brand also carries these sheen colors.

Hiya, if you look at my vintage cake with the photo frames I used PME gold spray. I felt it came out a better colour when sprayed on black so I'd recommend covering with black fondant then painting. HTH.

Thanks! Those are all good suggestions. I don't have an airbrush, but perhaps should think about investing in one. Is black the best color to paint gold?

I would think that it would be better to do the fondant a yellow or yellowish-orange color and then spray with the gold. I've never done gold on a cake but it would seem more logical to me than white or black.

The best thing to do is to tint your fondant yellow and then spray it a gold and that will give you your prettiest gold color.

yes I agree with creativecakes and kamscakes you should start with a yellow color then use the gold color. I see that you live in San Diego (I hope I am right) you can go to a store in Chula Vista by L st. they sell tools. but they have some bottles that you can purchase and spray the cakes this could be a good alternative for the air brush. and I also think they have basic spray guns very cheap
good luck

Having just had a massive dilemma with gold paint by airbrushing it, as the needle kept getting clogged as the gold powder mixed with alcohol kept drying very quick. You really need to wash it out very regularly, so I am told. I resorted to painting thereafter, but had trouble with tiny cracks showing. I didn't colour the fondant, so I wish I had now that I have read this post. Arggghhh!

When ever I want to do anything gold, I have a colour called 'autumn leaf' which creates a sort of brick colour which adds to the foundation to the gold you want to do. You then paint on the gold

Even doing the cake in ivory will help the gold as opposed to white...I find if I use too bright of a gold or yellow color as my base, it makes a kind of bright yellowish gold. Maybe try more on the ivory/tan/muted gold color so that you get maybe a more natural type of gold shade.

What I did with this cake

http://cakecentral.com/gallery/1396163

was to start out with a tan fondant(the color on the top part of the cake). Then brush it all over with dry lustre dust. I used antique silk on this one and it came out looking like a nice burnished gold without having to bother with streaking paint or airbrushes. If you want bright yellow metallic jewelry gold, this won't work. But if you want a nice antique, burnished gold look...

Thank you everyone for the suggestions! I tinted the MMF a gold gel color and then sprayed with edible gold spray by chefmaster. The customer loved it! If you'd like to see the end result:

http://cakecentral.com/gallery/2020515

It looks great!

you did an awesome job!
love the gold color and your roses are amazing.
wtg!!!

I bought the Chefmaster gold spray but haven't used it yet. Glad to hear it works.

If you want the cake to look like an antique-ish gold as opposed to gleaming, I would recommend using a tan or brown fondant and airbrushing gold over it. It just depends on the effect you're trying to achieve. Think about the undertone you want it to have and use that color fondant before spraying the gold.