When I opened the package I received from Lucks, I was blown away! Not only by their generous gift but by the products themselves! The edible images were so vibrant and beautiful, and the patterns had such a luxe feel to them. I was immediately inspired to create something beautiful and unique.

The blue floral strips were stunning and grabbed my attention initially. I thought if I used this pattern to wrap a tier that it would look like fabric. I think it does indeed, and it adds beautiful texture to the overall piece. I was initially going to add one of the round decals to the top of the cake and do a brush effect with royal icing to help it blend, but really fell in love with how clean and simple and chic it was coming across. I used a mold to create the middle gold band, and I thought it came across as looking like a piece of jewelry.

My favorite thing about this cake is the overall look. It is super clean and simple but has glamorous and dramatic details. The decals allowed for the bottom part of the cake to look like fabric which I feel is a fresh and unique technique. Much more clean than hand-painting. I feel like it is the perfect balance of classic meets modern meets glitz and glitter! This cake is a real cake (lemon crème cake with raspberry filling and almond icing). It was for my cousin for her 15th birthday. She loved it! I really love the Lucks strip decals and would definitely use them in the future!

Because of its unique print, I want to create something unique, too… When I [saw] all [of] the prints, my [imagination saw] a bird [and] peacock feathers. Later on, I got the idea to cut the paper and make it like oriental paintings on the frame for the bottom tier of the cake.

The bird [is my favorite]!! It [took] me one and a half days to apply the paper to the fondant, cut it and apply it one by one. [I] love the material compared to other brands. Lucks makes thicker paper so it didn’t break easily.

I was very excited to receive the edible images from Lucks, and to have so many different options to choose from. The edible images were so vibrant and each one [was] unique; I could have taken the cake in several different directions. But I was drawn to one image in particular— Country Garden— and designed the cake around it. I loved the different colored pinks and oranges of the flowers against the teal background. The paper had a romantic feel to it. This was my first cake using edible images, and they were very easy to apply! My main tool used on this cake was actually a circle cutter! I used it to make the scrunched ruffles on the bottom tier and to make the gumpaste flowers.

My favorite part about this cake was the edible paper cutout applied to the top and second tier from the bottom. The cutout is subtle yet ties the whole design together. I was happy to learn a new technique and will be using edible paper in the future! I was thrilled to be asked to make a cake for this contest, and want to send a huge thank you to CakeCentral for asking me, to Lucks for supplying the materials, and to Greg Sand for taking these gorgeous photos!

First I conceptualized the details that I could make that would be outside of the box of the traditional use for these types of decor elements. Then I designed the three cakes so that I could highlight each technique [or] method without cluttering one cake with everything. After I designed the cakes, I divided up the colors and patterns from the Dena’s Tea Garden packs and assigned them to the cakes they most appropriately matched.

With these edible images my most used tool was an X-acto knife with a constantly sharp fresh blade. I also used many flower [and] petal cutters and a ball tool.

I loved using the edible images like gumpaste and not just like decals. I love how they were able to take on the role of more traditional sugar to make the center dahlia on the green cake and the delicate petal skirt on the pink and orange cake. Being able to create almost fabric-looking flowers with it was the most exciting discovery for me with this medium. The edible images were not as delicate as I was afraid they would be. I really wanted to test and push their limits and see what they could do. I didn’t want to have to apply them to sugar paste every time I wanted to make a 3-D decor piece from them, and I didn’t have to. They do take some finessing and a bit of play to understand how they work if it’s your first time, but learning its strengths and weaknesses is fun and opens the doors to many design possibilities. I would not have been able to achieve with any measure of speed or repetitive accuracy the intricate detail on the flowers by hand without the use of these printed patterns.

I was so excited to receive edible images from Lucks. This is an area of cake decorating I haven’t explored. I didn’t expect so many choices. All the prints are lovely, making it a little difficult to choose which to use. After playing the mix and match game with all the prints, I chose one from Dena’s Garden and two from Tea Garden Variety that worked well together. I made the fantasy flower first which really dictated the direction of the design. I used various cutters— peony, teardrop, blossom and circle— as well as my pasta machine to laminate white and teal gum paste for the flower topper. Gold dragees accent the edible images. I love the look of the fantasy flower. The edible prints give it a unique quality. Thank you Cake Central and Lucks for this very fun opportunity!

I liked the colors [of the edible images]. The patterns are a little busy for my general style but I like them. Gold and floral is really in, so I wanted to work them together [on this cake]. I used Lucks Gold Shimmer color to airbrush the cake. I love how the colors pop.

I was so incredibly pleased [by Lucks edible images]. For whatever reason, when I knew edible images were on their way, my brain went straight to zebra stripes. The images were beautiful and inspiring to work from. Immediately I had at least 20 ideas pop into my head because of the versatility and complementing colors of the products. I wanted to showcase the prints without them taking over the design of the cake. You could look at this cake and not notice the patterns right away. I think when your eye does see the patterns, they really pop! I went with ruffles of material as my inspiration for this cake.

The construction was very simple for this design: strips of fondant, some with the edible image print, folded into ruffles and fixed onto the cake. All I really needed was an X-acto knife, paint brushes for the gold edging and gold painted tier, roller and a mold I used for the brooch.

I love the elegance that radiates from [the cake]. When the light hits the gold edges and the gold tier, it shimmers and those little bursts of printed ruffles provide additional interest in the decorative touches. This was my first time working with the edible images, and I found them very easy to use. The sky really is the limit when it comes to how you could use these materials.

I honestly thought I was going to have to make bows with the [Edible Image® designs] when I first saw them]. I could not for the life of me think of anything other than wrapping the tiers with them, cutting and pasting them or making bows. Then it hit me. Combine them with another edible paper like material and make something artsy!

I chose the two patterns based on color and similarity. I didn’t want to use two completely different patterns and throw the flow of the design off. All I used were scissors, some shortening, and a stitching wheel.

I like the motion [the cake design] seems to have. The detailing was extremely easy to do and, in fact, would be fun for any skill level to accomplish. But I believe the entire design is pulled together to create a really elegant but whimsical look. I can see something like this fitting right in at a swanky wedding reception. The sheets are extremely user friendly. I adhered my pieces to rice paper with a dab of shortening, and they stuck nicely with no warping or color runs.