Anyone know how to prevent color from airbrushing being absorbed into other sections of the cake? 
My last cake had to be done three days before pickup on my last workday...it was put in the cooler for a day and then moved into the freezer to wait for pickup. I checked before I left and the color had absorbed down onto the sides. I was disappointed with it. Should the cake have been frozen immediately? Or would the color been absorbed when the cake defrosted for serving 
Any thing I can do to prevent this the next time?
sometimes when i have airbrushed and had to leave the cake a day before pick up i believe the color evaporates away some. so it seems lighter. ive never seen it run down the sides, Now overspray does tend to coat the sides lightly and the only way to prevent that is to mask that area off before spraying.
I agree with the last post... to keep color from ending up all over the place, you have to mask off other sections... the AB that I use at work is great, but the color drifts all the way across my table... so at the end of the day my hands are a slightly green color, from the overspray landing on my bags.
As for the color running, I don't know for sure, but I would say rhat maybe if it had gone straight to freezer, it wouldn't have bled. Putting the cake in the cooler allows it to pick up some moisture, and if that hits the cake, that would cause the run. IMHO
You are both right. The overspray coats my work area, too. The color that caused me the most concern was black used for the highway portion. It wasn't there when I first finished the cake but spread down on the sides. I'll try just letting it sit without a cover--maybe the moisture will evaporate and then I'll stick it in the freezer (unless it's being picked up the next day). Thanks for your input.
That's the problem right there hun, if you do use rich's you have to really saturate the color or it does fade and it fades BAD!!! And beings it isn't a crusting icing it's real hard to mask things off with too. A coupla things I learned along the way..........when doing black on a whipped icing cake I go over it with royal blue (keeps it from turning a nasty faded green), I turned down the pressure on my gun so that it's only like 10 psi. (great for detail work, and also helps with the overspray problem) If you want the reds to stay "red" lay on some orange over the red so that it doesn't turn "pink". And to get it that dark and keep it that dark, freeze the cake.
When you are airbrushing, don't try to get it dark on the first pass, painting on whipped is like painting a watercolor, layer upon layer of color will work better than one dark layer which might run. But like I said rich's (whipped) is very bad about sucking in the color, O yeah and don't use dark color bc on it either it will bleed. Rich's is easy to apply to cakes but dang it's a bugger when you want to airbrush anything on it.
If we had to do cakes for the case and lots were whipped, we froze them, or if we had to do a cake any time in advance it would also be frozen. It only takes 30 minutes for them to thaw out. And usually once they leave the bakery they don't last for more than 2-3 hours in the customers hands anyway (eaten that is) so I wouldn't worry bout fading.
This particular cake was frosted with the buttercreme but I know what you mean with the whipped. I have a difficult time getting the whipped smooth. When I airbrush the whipped, any "little craters" or rough spots show up like spot lights! I was told to spray a base coat of yellow over top; then it wouldn't require so much to color the grass green or highway black. I don't know how to turn down the pressure...just try to control the spray with that little flat button (we have an airmaster..the previous cake decorator quit before I got there and no one knows how to work the thing.) At least, that's what they say.
k on the compressor there is a little brass screw where the air comes out to the hose. Unscrew that til you get the pressure that you want. That would be your air pressure regulator.
K now bc is a whole different animal when it comes to airbrushing. Whereas airbrushing whipped is like trying to airbrush sand, airbrushing bc is like trying to airbrush glass. You don't want to saturate the color too much on bc. It beads up especially if you are using the stuff that comes in the buckets (really greasy and heavy). I would still use the same techniques for color as I would on whipped but use a lighter hand on bc. It won't fade near as bad. I would freeze it if you had too but I wouldn't put it in the cooler because of the humidity and that causes the color to "bead" therefore making it "run" off the cake. So, then, on whipped cakes; saturate the color, and on bc cakes; apply just enough to match the kit you are working on. If you do have time to let the bc crust I would do so, gives it an absorbant layer, but if you don't then be light handed with the airbrush. If you can let it crust you can also make a mask out of parchment that they have in the back for baking. Cut a hole in the parchment just big enough for the surface that you want painted to be painted. Lay that on the cake (don't worry bout the corners, you have to put on a border anyway). Spray away, let the color dry for a bit (go on to the next project etc.) then carefully pull off the parchment mask and then do your borders n whatever else you have to do.
As for smoothing whipped icing, the best thing I found was to use a spatula that has been run under "hot" water and lightly run along the top of the cake (make sure you wipe off the spatula after every swipe or it'll take the frosting with it).
hey, chaptlps, you are definitely helping me here. I'm going to print this topic and take to work with me. I cut parchment paper triangle and put down to protect corners...when I started to brush, the paper curled up and so I just took it off. How can I get the paper to stay down and not mess the icing?
I would use the whole sheet of parchment not just corners and cut out a "window" in the center. The weight of the paper itself should keep it from curling. If that doesn't work just take a spare cake board and use it and hold it over the part that you are spraying towards that you don't want color to get on. (I hope I explained that right, I can see it but can't seem to explain it well at all. sheesh)
Yup, as a store decorater, I agree with everything that's been said by Chaptips... from the info on shipped bettercreme to the buttercream, everything she says is right on...... Wanna impress them? Buy a piece of lace with some nice open areas on it... then lay that on the cake and AB color over it.... FABULOUS... put two in the case, both sold, and orders taken for them before they sold... amazing! Something so simple and yet so nice.... Darn it... now something else to get for my cake stuff.....
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