First Wedding! Advice Please =)
Decorating By brea1026 Updated 11 Jul 2007 , 4:19am by roxxxy_luvs_duff
Hi,
I am getting ready to do my first wedding cake for this saturday and I am starting to get nervous! Here is the info on the cake:
18,14,10, and 6" tiers. Multiple fillings and flavors. All covered in Satin Ice and will be airbrushed solid orange.
There are no additional details on this cake, just a simple 1" border that will be orange too.
The only thing that I am really nervous about is the 18" cake. I have never made one this big, so I am very concerned about it breaking as I am layering it and about covering it in the fondant.
Also, any tips on airbrushing large amounts of space a solid color would be so appreciated. My thought is that I will do several very light coats, so help keep it from spotting and running. I will be using electric orange airbrush color, so hopefully there won't be any inconsistent coloring issues.
Any words of wisdom you can give would be so greatly appreciated! I am planning on assembling the cake on site, since it is so massive! Hopefully it will make the drive!
AHHH- deep breaths....
Did the bride say that she wanted it airbrushed? or was that recommended by you? I would think that it would be easier and more even to color the fondant orange. 18" cakes are difficult to cover in fondant, but just make sure you have enough, and have enough room to roll it all out. As for airbrushing, if that's what you HAVE to do, you should do several light coats, like you mentioned. If you have time this week, I would cover a small cake, or a dummy cake and practice. The last thing you want to do is practice on the actual cake, and something go wrong, or the spray giving you problems. Good luck, the cake looks cool, hope everything works out well 
I would color it orange and then you can airbrush over that if you want a little more pop - looks like it will be a cool cake!
if you don't cover it in fondant and want to airbrush i would suggest tinting the icing orange then airbrushing for a deeper cover
I totally agree with mendhigurl! Coloring the fondant will definitely give you a more even color. You just have to color all of your fondant at one time to achieve the same color throughout. If you do not have anyone to assist you for covering the large cakes. I would definitely use the method of rolling out your fondant on a mate and then flipping it onto your cake. Covering cakes that large take time and practice to develop this skill. Make sure that you have enough room to roll out the fondant and that you have rolled it out large enough and evenly. (You don't want to have waste when doing cakes that large. 
) Make sure that you mark the center of each cake so that when you go to construct your cake on-site, you do not end up with a lop-sided or crooked looking cake. My thoughts and best wishes go out to you for this endeavor. 
You might want to do a practice run on a piece of fondant to make sure your airbrushing technique and color come out the way you want.
To fill your large layer you need something flat that is a little larger than the cake. After you tort it slip in your flat plate or whatever you're using and slip the half of the cake on it so you can put on your filling. Prior to taking the layer off make a little slit so you know where your layer was and the cake stays level in case you didn't do an even cut through the middle.
It's a great idea of yours to assemble when you get to the site. Just in case something happens in transit make sure you take an emergency kit of anything you might need to make repairs....you never know.
Good Luck!
Thanks for the great advice. I did have a question about coloring the fondant. I was told that it would be best to airbrush because I am going to need about 13lbs of satin ice (based on a chart I found on here) and I was told that it would be extreemly difficult and it would break down the satin ice to add that much coloring to it. Should I maybe just try to color it a little, and then airbrush for deeper orange color? I am definately going to do a test run tomorrow. Hopefully I wil figure things out! Thanks again for the help!
As far as being afraid of the 18 inch cake breaking. I'd say make it first and freeze it. The bakery I got my pans to use for my cakes told me that he's are frozen when he decorates them. Then there's no fear of breaking or cracking of the cakes. Mine were all frozen even when I filled them. And they turned out good and moist. But I used buttercream not fondant.
Just a suggection!
Carol
if you are going to airbrush or color the fondant i suggest that you start with yellow then go over with orange it will make the color pop more. do they sell satin ice in orange? if they do sell it if i was you id just buy it orange
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