Need Advice On Color Bleed Issue

Decorating By Daffy Updated 1 May 2007 , 3:17pm by Jopalis

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Daffy Posted 1 May 2007 , 2:57pm
post #1 of 3

My daughter and I are planning to make her birthday cake this weekend. She is 15 and aspires to be a cake decorator! She has her heart set on a topsy turvy cake. Her party is Sat. night. Since we are not proficient at using fondant at this point I was planning to use buttercream as the base and decorate with colored fondant. I am able to get the icing smooth enough to look really nice but I am not as good with total coverage of fondant yet. I am holding off on the fondant until I feel more comfortable using it.

I have a quick question. The colors she has chosen are red, black and white with a little pink thrown in for good measure.

If I color the fondant red and black or pipe red or black icing what kinds of problems am I going to have with bleeding onto the pink or white base icing?

What do I need to do to avoid the bleed? I was thinking about using a crusting buttercream and allowing the crust to form then decorating on top of the crust. Am I on the right track?

2 replies
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Omicake Posted 1 May 2007 , 3:11pm
post #2 of 3

I think you are in the right track by letting the buttercream crust first. But let's see what other CCers have to say.
This serves as a bump ,as well.

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Jopalis Posted 1 May 2007 , 3:17pm
post #3 of 3

If it were BC I would be sure to use merengue powder in your icing. It adds stabilitly. Not sure about using it in fondant. Also use Americolor Super Red and Super Black. Otherwise you will have to put a huge amount of color in and may not achieve the color you want even then. If it were just black or a bit of black you were trying to get, it is easier to start out with it being chocolate or adding coco powder. Are you wanting to color the fondant or paint it? If painting you mix alcohol or an extract like lemon with a bit of the color. Not sure how to get the color even though.

Might want to allow some drying time for a specific color before adding the other.

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