making a wedding cake for couple at church -- 2nd marriage for both, 1st spouses died -- reception sponsored by the church's women's group
no specs as to shape or style, I pretty much get to pick that -- was told just make it pretty and romantic (no pressure -- OY)

and I put my spatula down and insisted it had to be fondant covered, not BC as I HATE working in BC (and it shows in my cakes!!!)

well, finally found out from pres of the women's group that bride has picked these colors (no flowers or flavors, yet)


buttercream
yellow
periwinkle
pink



so...advice please!!!!! begging!!!!

is buttercream close to ivory??

periwinkle examples (just what shade of blue is that?)

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buttercream base?
other colors as accents?
how?
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(just my luck -- 4!!!!! colors!)

http://www.buygifttissue.com/images/Periwinkle.jpg

Here's periwinkle. My guess for buttercream would be an ivoryish color, if that's even a word

thanks for that jen1977..

a purplish blue, eh..

ok...to me that's even more ICK w/ the yellow and pink and "buttercream"

OK, this cake has periwinkle and yellow with white icing. I can't imagine where pink would fit in. To me, 'buttercream' suggests a slightly ivory or yellowish icing. I'd check with the customer to be sure, tho.

she used the word buttercream as a color? lol, thats bizarre. I know when I make buttercream, sometimes I'll add too much vanilla extract and that makes it like an ivory/beige-ish color and it tastes better

Maybe on the pic posted above, make every other middle diamond pink with a pink luster dust and add a few pink dots on the top?

this is a surprise for the customer -- she only knows the women's group is doing some kind of reception ..

of note -- they're being married immediately after the regular church service -- so it's sort of like church is running long, and there reception replaces the (required for lutherans) coffee hour.

sooooo....having to work through the women's group president.

and yes, she did say "buttercream" as a color.

thanks for the help so far.

keep those suggestions coming.

I like the cake DianeLM is showing. You could tie in more pink and "buttercream" by making some of the loops in the bow those colors and also like jen1977 mentioned by putting the pink in the diamonds.

Also, I found this cake:

http://www.carlocksbakery.com/cakes3.html

go down to number 51. The roses are periwinkle and the calla lillies have the yellow so all you would need to do is add a little pink accent flower and you'd have all the colors covered.

What about buttercream color as the base and making some beautiful flowers in her assortment of other colors cascading down the cake. Women think flowers are romantic and pretty so that I think would meet the church ladies requirements without it looking like a rainbow blew up on the cake.
Just a thought. Good luck.

I have a bride I am working with that wants emerald green and silver for her cake NO white all emerald green and silver. I know hoe you are feeling!! Oh she wants hers to be romantic too!!

Like I said good luck!! You'll do great!

thanks for that pic DianeLM (did you read my mind that I wanted to do something more modern?)

and for the input ladybuglau, Jen1977, SueB and heavenlys! the more I get the more it helps!!!

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still open to more suggestions/advice.

You could keep the yellow to a minimum by just using it in the center of pink & periwinkle flowers.

Regardless of what you do, I think the word to keep in mind is "soft." Pink and periwinkle are both pastels, or at least can be, so can yellow, and pastels will usually play very well together.

I would go with a purplish rather than orangish pink, periwinkle with that is distinctly purplish, not too blue, and light golden yellow rather than lemon, which has a greenish cast to it that could look icky. All tied together with greenery (I would go with a true leaf green here, not pastel) it should be a lovely cake!

So glad to be able to offer advice to the man with all the answers!

Doug, depending which BC recipe you use...........mine is always ivory (every cake in my pics is bc except my own wedding cake which was cream cheese, but mixed with butter, came out ivory also).........I use 1/2 butter, 1/2 shortening, real vanilla, milk and ps. So, between the butter, and the vanilla, it tints my icing ivory, and I guess I have never had any one request pure white bc..........I am sure it will happen. As far as other colors.......the yellow and periwinkle sound great.........the pink is where I get hung up (not crazy about pink anyway) I really like the cake that Diane posted, so I am not sure where to incorporate the pink...........I would do the least amount of pink in ration to the other colors.........

good luck heavenlys on trying to make an emerald green and silver cake look romantic and not like the wizard of oz Post pics when it's done!!!

On that list of colors, I think they meant to tell you buttercup yellow, not buttercream yellow. Sounds like nice soft colors is what they are looking for.

deb

I would would say make the cake color ivory fondant and for the romance, use the other colors as flower colors.

I think that deb might be right about the buttercream vs buttercup.

I think the color buttercream is not referring to buttercream icing...rather the cream off of milk which is used to make butter. I would go with the suggestion of a very pale golden yellow. I wouldn't add the brown to it.

To me... when i think of buttercream as a colour, it is more soft yellow....

The closest if could find is a link to a dog sweater: http://www.thepuppyshop.com/dogsweater2.html


If you aren't going to use flowers to pick up the colours, I really like the idea of the cake that DianeLM posted. What if you replaced the bold yellow with a pale pink, the white buttercream base with the palest possible buttercreme coloured fondant, and leave the periwinkle as is? If you use really soft version of all the colours it could look both contemporary and romantic!

How about a stacked square cake in pale yellow fondant, with buttercream/ivory band (fondant ribbon) around the bottom of each square, and tiny buttercream/ivory flowers cascading down the sides that have pink and perriwinkle centers? Might be best to use very pale shades. That way the colors are all there, but very subtle and muted. Just an idea

The emerald/silver cake reminds of the Slytherins from Harry Potter!

Well there has already been some great advice but I just will not pass up the opportunity to help Doug who has graciously helped us all out so often.

Ok so here is what Id do, I would cover the whole cake in Butter cream colored fondant (to me Butter cream is what butter pecan ice cream looks like, sort of a pale yellow beigeish color, and now you have an excellent excuse to go buy a pint and enjoy in the name of research). I would then put a periwinkle fondant ribbon around each tier at the base. As far as the pink and yellow are concerned, and I know how much you love pink Doug. You could incorporate those colors with flowers, Swiss dots, harlequin patterns, swirls, hearts, romantic writing, or something of that nature.
I really hope I have helped and cant wait to see what you come up with.

Doug;

When I think of b/c like -crislen I'm thinking a very pale yellow...IMBC or SMBC ... use it as your base color and incorporate the other colors as suggested.

the question is what kind of b/c are u going to use?

If u decide 2 use the Decorators b/c- may I suggest Toba's recipe... I think that u would be VERY please w/ it ! so if u would like that recipe please let me know. I will forward asap.

Okay, I didn't read through all of the posts so hopefully I am not repeating someone elses suggestions. I think the flower idea is your best bet. I remember a cake from the Wilton Tiered Cakes book (I think) that was a three tiered heart cake (bottom two tiers stacked with the top tier on pillars) that would be gorgeous in those colors. You could do a buttercream base with periwinkle hydrangeas, light pink & pale yellow roses. The flowers were all around the top edge of the tiers. It is such a beautiful cake. I think it is definitely under the romantic catagory!
HTH,
HeatherMari

thanks to all ya all: Alimonkey, Kerri729, Momlittr, RRGibson, RedPanda, BCJean, Crislen, KiKi97np, Spongemomsweatpants, donnajf, and HeatherMari.

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noted a trend -- use the buttercream/buttercup/ivory as as the base color (and Crislen -- cute sweater!)

the accent it in some way w/ the other colors as pastels, esp the pink and the yellow.

as for outer icing -- adamant that I'm going to do fondant -- as I hate BC, I'm no good w/ BC (and have pics to prove it!) and it will still be hot hot hot here at the start of Sept.

but UNDER the fondant -- will the IMBC or SMBC have enough body to support the fondant???

as for design -- looked up your suggestion HeatherMari. It's called "Flower Tower" -- pretty cake which gives me some ideas, tho' I will be avoiding do heart shapes

and yes, the stacked designs are more my speed and was thinking squares maybe even turning as the go up.

it doesn't have to be a really big cake -- we only average about 100 people for church on a Sunday -- tho' this might get a few more out of the woodwork, but then again it is the Labor Day weekend, so who knows.

Again, thanks for all the help.

Can't wait to see the final pictures!

I know - I can't wait to see what you come up with either!

As far as MBC under fondant, that's what I use, and I've seen antonia74 say the same thing. It's even more important with MBC than CBC that you just use a thin layer of icing under the fondant.

I use SMBC under my fondant as well. It seems to work just fine. But I personally like more than just a really thin layer or icing. I never like for the fondant to be the main icing, just in case people don't eat it and peel it off. I haven't had any trouble with it to date (knock on wood).

Here are my suggestions/ideas for the cake you need. I pulled these pictures from Jacques Pastries (which is one of my favorite sites to drool over!!)

Good Luck!