Hi! I have to make a Little Mermaid cake for a little girl's 5th birthday at the end of July. I'm going to put a image of the mermaid on top of the cake and was thinking about doing parts of the mermaid in buttercream for texture (the hair and tail) and parts that I want smooth in royal icing (the face and fins). Can I get a smooth finish if I do the royal icing flow-ins on top of the cake instead of making it seperately and just putting it on the cake? How long will it take for the royal icing to dry on top of the cake? Also, does it really matter if the royal icing doesn't dry before the party? I'm so excited about this, but also really scared that I will mess it up and dissapoint the little girl!

Could you do a frozen buttercream transfer instead? It would all be smooth, then maybe you could pipe some details on top after it is on the cake for some texture (like hair etc) I dont know if it is the look you are going for. I am not sure if your method would work or not. I'd be a little worried that the buttercream would not be stiff enough to hold your flow -in. Maybe you could use full strength royal for that too. I guess I just dont know. It does take awhile for color flow to set up. Maybe someone else has ideas for you. Good luck!

At first I considered a fbct, but the dream always gets bigger. I don't think that a fbct will give the shiny, smooth finish that royal icing will. If anyone has any ideas, please share them.

At first I considered a fbct, but the dream always gets bigger. I don't think that a fbct will give the shiny, smooth finish that royal icing will. If anyone has any ideas, please share them.

At first I considered a fbct, but the dream always gets bigger. I don't think that a fbct will give the shiny, smooth finish that royal icing will. If anyone has any ideas, please share them.

problem w/ royal: grease in BC breaks it down, so doubtful it would work by do directly onto bc iced cake

I didn't know that bc breaks down royal icing. I guess it's back to the drawing board. Sorry about the triple post, my pc is not my friend today.

Okay what about this idea, may take some work but it might be feasible...What if you did the whole thing in a FBCT. But you could do some color flow before hand (trace the shapes that you want (face etc.) Then after you transfer the FBCT you could lay the color flow right on top of the FBCT(your buttercream shouldnt break it down once it has dried-I did do one though that the grease did *slightly* spot the colorflow, but no big deal-see my spartan cake, you wouldnt know the difference. Doug was right, I forgot about it breaking down. It probably would never set up if you did it right on top of the BC)

Or! Maybe this would look better...You do the entire thing in colorflow, then after it has dried you could add royal icing or stiff color flow details for the parts that you want textured. Thats what I would do on 2nd thought!