Well I am just posting away this week. Call it my addiction. Are there different types of color flow techniques? I see some are very shiny (almost like the run in sugar technique) and some look like fbct's. Can anyone shed some light for this newbie? Thank you!
Color flow is the American name for Run Sugar (is English) so there the same. I think the thicker color flow is the one that looks like FBCT. As for different types of color flow I'm not sure about that one. 
Thanks, is the only way to do color flow directly on the cake? I tried the piping gel transfer and it worked well but if there is a way to do it ahead of time and then put on the cake, I would love to know about it. Thanks again.
HI Msmanning2, YES, you can do you colorflow desings way ahead of time, just put wax or parchment paper on top of your design and trace it with your color flow, wait until it is 100% dry (2-3 days) and peel the paper from the back and put it on the cake. I found that the longer you let dry the better, specially on larger designs. HTH and Good Luck!
I've never heard of doing color flow right onto a cake. It is supposed to dry hard before you use it. Color flow breaks down when anything with grease touches it. You need to do color flow onto parchement or wax paper & let it dry.
That is why I am confused. I did a run in sugar design for practice, based on a picture and advice from this site, and it was done with the piping gel to transfer to the cake and then I outlined it in icing and ran in the sugar mixtures (conf sug, corn syrup and water I believe). It stayed nicely for several days and didn't bleed. I liked the shiny look to it. I will try to find the pic I used for inspiration to hopefully show you.
Here is the pictures I was talking about. I LOVE this cake and look of it. Thank you tripletmom for your inspiration and advice!
Oh, that's just called gel transfer~ It's totally different from color flow~ Color flow you use color flow mix (wilton sells it) & water that's all. You did a gel transfer. A very good one if I do say so!
Really? I didn't use gel except the clear kind to outline it. I have so much to learn. This is by no means my work. This is the fancy work of tripletmom. I wish I could take credit. Thank you for all of your help.
It's just called gel transfer because it's thin & transparent like gel. The recipe for this is regular BC icing with corn syrup & piping gel mixed into to make it so shinny & transparent & whatever colors you are using. Those are very fun to do. I think there is a tutorial on this site. Let me go look to see if I can find it.
Run-In-Sugar is different than color flow. You use different recipes to make each and they have different pros and cons.
Run-In-Sugar as you described is done directly on the cake, and is outlined in buttercream or royal icing, then filled in with a sugar/water/corn syrup mixture. It sets but stays soft enough to cut through. It also has more of a translucent look to it.
Color Flow (which is probably Wilton's term for it) can also be called Flooding along with several other things. It is maded with powder sugar, water and color flow powder or with royal icing. It is usually done on wax paper, parchment or plastic wrap and is done days in advance to needing it. You out line with a thicker version, then thin it down to fill in. It dries hard and then is placed on a cake. Some people will remove it from the cake before cutting since it does dry hard. It can also be used standing up on a cake.
According to Wilton Color Flow is best done with the Color Flow powder as they say it creates a stronger piece that has a bit of a shinny apparence where as Royal Icing dries more matte. It has been said though that if you dry the royal icing under a heating lamp it will dry more shinny.
I perosnally use royal icing wiht the color flow techinque because I always have the meringue powder on hand, where as I don't do enough of them to use up color flow powder before it goes bad.
There is so much to learn. Thanks for the guidance! I will try all of them for practice!
Here's an easy piping gel tutorial:
http://www.cakecentral.com/article45-How-to-Decorate-with-Piping-Gel.html
I can't find the one I'm talking about. Hope this helps.
Msmanning2, I've seen this done on another board and there they refered to it as Run-In-Sugar.
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