Silly Question About Decorating A Character Cake...
Decorating By DoniB Updated 28 May 2007 , 4:53pm by DoniB
I know this may seem silly, but I have a question about decorating a character cake. I'm doing the carousel horse for my MIL for her graduation party tomorrow. It's going on top of the large oval cake. My question is this... when I do the base coat of icing, do I JUST ice the background parts, then outline all the raised bits? I know it says that on the instructions, but I'm being a doofus and second-guessing everything. 
I've never done a character cake before, and this one's kinda important. My MIL deserves to have a nice fuss made over her for graduating college!
I'm guessing that, yes, I just ice the background, and then fill in the outlined areas without putting a base coat on them. Is this right? I really want this to turn out well for her.
Doni the Clueless
If you are talking about crumb coating, no. I don't crumbcoat character cakes. I just outline and fill-in. Some areas get smooth icing though. Hope this helps.
Congrats to your MIL and good luck with the cake.
I have done a few Character cakes before and i dont even put on a base layer of icing. I normally just fill in the parts that have to be smooth, then outline everything with the black icing, and then fill in with the stars. And then depending upon how bold the black lines look, i will go over them again with the black to make them stand out. But if it is hard for you to see where the black outlines should go to begin with you may want to use an edible marker and draw them on the cake first... this way you dont get confused while icing with the black and cant tell where things are. Hope that helps!! 
Whenever I do character cakes, and I have done a lot, I always just ice the parts that have to be smooth and outline the rest and fill in with stars. I would do it this way, I was helping a first timer do a character cake and she iced the entire thing and it just looked off because she couldn't really see the lines, but she didn't really listen to me, but she was really pleased with herself so that's what matters most! Only really devoted cake people notice these things, everyone else at the party thought she was a genius! 
So I guess what I'm saying is that it will be special and I am sure she will love it, and only you will notice the imperfections!! 
Thanks so much! I'm not decorating it till tomorrow morning (actually, I think it already IS tomorrow morning, LOL, but you know what I mean!) She's tickled to death that I got her the cake pan to begin with, and she said it looked fine without any icing on it at all. BAH! She knows not of what she speaks...
But thanks a lot... that's what I figured, but I wanted to see how other folks did it, before I went off and did it myself. 
I'll try to get pics as soon as it's done tomorrow.
well best of luck!! Definitely post some pictures when you're done! If you have any other questions just PM me. But i'm sure you'll do great!
I'm guessing that, yes, I just ice the background, and then fill in the outlined areas without putting a base coat on them. Is this right?
I really want this to turn out well for her.
Yes, that is right. The areas that you fill in with stars do NOT get a base coat. Just pipe the stars directly onto the cake.
Well, I finished it!!! YAY!!!!
Thanks so much to everyone who wrote so quickly to help me out. my MIL is THRILLED with the cake, and keeps standing there, staring at it. Apparently, no one ever thought to make her a decorated cake before, other than for her wedding, and she's just overcome today. I'm so glad we decided to throw her a party, and so very glad that we found the carousel cake pan on e-bay when we did!!! THat was just fate stepping in.
I used the Sam's club tub of icing, and did the Melvira method to smooth the sides and top. It worked GREAT where I'd actually smoothed it decently... not so great where I was slack. Guess I should have tried it on a smaller cake to begin with. but I'll practice. It looked fantastic on the parts that worked.
This was my first time doing ropes, as well, but I wanted the ropes to carry over the 'horse' theme, even if it's only a carousel horse. My MIL loves western stuff, so she's just happy as can be.
I took pics... they're in my photos.
Thanks again, everyone, for helping out!!!!! You guys rock!!!!
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