I want to do a colorflow piece for a birthday cake. The picture I want to do is approximately 5" X 8". My question is: How big can you go with colorflow without breakage? Is this even something I should attempt? Any help would be appreciated. Thanks.

anyone?

you should be okay, but you might want to make two just incase, and you need to handle carefully.

Thank you so much for your reply and your tip. Have a sweet day!

You can try to pipe it on top of a piece of tulle to make it stronger.

Good idea! Hadn't ever thought of that. Appreciate the reply.

Another thing you could do is use royal icing instead of colorflow. I have heard it is stronger and I also heard that buttercream breaks down colorflow so you have to set it off the buttercream with something (like mini marshmellows or sugar cubes) and royal doesn't do that.
Just a thought,
Heather

what is tule?

That size should be fine. The bride and groom piece on my "classy cowboy rehearsal dinner cake" is about 6x11 and it turned out fine, I even did it in royal icing run-out, which is supposed to be weaker than color flow. Just make sure it's completely dry (use those test puddles) and also, a neat trick I recently learned is to pipe it on saran wrap instead of waxed paper, and the backing will practically peal itself off. If you do use waxed paper, though, be sure to grease it with crisco first, then take a paper towel and wipe off as much crisco as you can. You will be left with a fine sheen of crisco, just enough to help with the removal of big pieces and not enough to mess with the composition of the color flow or royal icings. I agree with peg818, too; make more than one just in case. I usually make three or four to be on the safe side.

imartsy, I think it's supposed to be spelled "Tulle". It's a mesh-like fabric, used for bridal veils, petticoats, etc. Comes in varying density... that may be the wrong word, but some types of tulle have the mesh very tightly woven, whereas on other tulles, you can clearly see the open sqaures in between the weaving. Does that make sense? HTH. Blessings!

I was told in my Wilton classes that Colorflow is stronger than Royal icing, but BC breaks down *both* Royal icing and Colorflow about the same. It takes more than a day or two to really start breaking down either. I have noticed that Colorflow creations did seem a bit sturdier than Royal icing.

One concern, however, is to keep the Colorflow design (or Royal icing if you decide to use that) in a cool, dark place until you're ready to use it. The colour will fade from both if you leave anything made with either one exposed to light/sunlight.

If you're really undecided (or curious), try making one version of the design from each. Colorflow forms, while edible, aren't that appetising at all (amazing since it has all that sugar in it); Royal icing forms are of course edible and taste much better than anything made out of Colorflow.

Another point: make sure your utensils (bag, tips, couplers, etc.) have no prior history with Buttercream. I usually buy new ones anyway when I work with Royal. You'll be glad you did.

David

Thank you everyone! I made the colorflow pieces last night. Forgot to make more than one, so if they break I have a back-up plan, but wish I could use these if at all possible. I love the pillowed look. I am doing a "Cars" cake and a 4th of July cake and like that look for the car, especially. It turned out so neat and I really hope it works. Wasn't able to get the tulle, so was kind of bummed. I'll post pictures of the two pieces later. Thanks again to everyone!!!

Well, here they are. Hope they turn out as well as fronklowes classy cowboy cake! Thanks again for everyone's help!!!

Those look great!

I did a sun/moon (in my photos) that was about 8 or 9 in around and it worked fine.

Thank you Texas Sugar! Love the sun/moon. Beautiful!

Petitesweet, You should do okay with a 5x8. I did roughly a 15x15 size colorflow of a scrabble board. I flowed two, but I didn't have to use the second one. Just like it dry completely. You can see it in my photos.

Deedee44