Well, my 1st photo is in my photo gallery.
Like my signature says, I only did 6 cakes back in the 80's and all character cakes. This is all new to me again.
If it hadn't been for reading here the past month, it would have been a disaster. I was SO VERY shaky. HUM! Older maybe? Is that why?
I had a problem with the crumb coat being wet this morning and I tried to put the icing on anyway. Duh. I remembered some tips here and tried the hot dry knife and the Viva after it dried and it isn't half bad but I think too thin. I can see the brown under a little.
I got the red pretty red right???? Maybe more towards burgundy and the black I think looks black.
I've only got 7 tips so it was interesting.
I tired roses for a minute and thought that would be best for another whole day. LOL!
Thanks for looking,
Susie
http://www.cakecentral.com/cake-photo_916823.html

Way to go susies1955! Everything looks great (down to the cake board!). Looking forward to seeing more from you.

Oops, I should have read the whole post before leaving a comment! Your icing is so smooth-now I see you did the Viva method. You did an amazing job on the red & black-they looked right on to me and my beginner eyes. Good Luck, Gail

snowshoe1 and Gail,
Thanks for the replies and for liking it. I'm glad I did the baking and icing making yesterday.
We just ate a third of it.
Sweet. May have to change to a less sweet icing. I'm a low carber so I normally don't eat sugar, cake or anything like this. OH NO!

Thanks again,
Susie

I can't get my icing red like that!

What's your secret?

I used tips from this forum to get the "red" really red. I started by using yellow then letting it sit for an hour or so and then adding orange and again letting it set and then red about four times letting it set in between each time and then overnight.
Hope that helps,
Susie

How did you get your black to be so dark? I hear that is hard to do. Any secrets you want to share?

Shaina,
I learned the tip here for making black. You start by adding brown and let it set for an hour or two and add brown again and let it set and then black about three or four times depending on how much you use and then let it set over night. You may get away with getting it black without letting it set all night as mine was pretty good before I went to bed.

Susie

Thank you! I'll remember that.