I have a wedding shower coming up for my soon-to-be sister in law. I am in charge of making the cake! It's going to be a red velvet cake inside. The color scheme for the shower is black, white and deep red. (The deep red is being used as the inside of the cake so basically I just have to cover the white and black part now!) So I have a couple questions for you.... The cake will be covered in Satin Ice fondant. I cant decide if I want to do a white fondant cake with black trim (If I do this, Im concerned that it might start to resemble a little debbie zebra cake 
)... OR a black fondant covered cake with white trim. I think that the black cake could be absolutely stunning, I just dont know if its okay to take a black cake to a wedding shower haha. Im planning to attempt to make (or more likely, purchase 
) some White Orchids with deep red centers to drape around the cake. The bottom tier will have buttercream scrollwork, the second tier will be a diamond pattern with edible pearls at the points of the diamonds, and then scrollwork again on the top, possibly a monogrammed top. What are your color suggestions??
My second question was about fillings. With a red velvet cake, which do you think would taste best: a CreamCheese Raspberry Mousse, or something like an Amaretto Cream?
Thanks so much!! The shower isn't until the end of October, so I have plenty of time to explore possibilities and ideas!! 
~Carrie
I think you should have the bottom tier be black with white scrolls. The second tier white with black diamonds and then the top tier be white with black scrolls. If you do your diamonds big enough for the middle tier it will look equally both black and white. And I think with the orchids would definitely be appropriate for a shower. Very classic and romantic.
Are they having orchids at the wedding? Fresh may be kind of expensive...you may want to look into silk? Just a thought!
Oh yeah! Definitely the Cream cheese Raspberry mousse! YUM!
I like step0nmi's design ideas, too. The cream cheese raspberry mousse sounds yummy... I want some now, please
This is from the 2008 Wilton Yearbook. I think it's just gorgeous. I'm sure it would look just as gorgeous as a round or square.
I hope it's ok I post the photo. I did give credit to where I got it from. If it isn't allowed, Heath or Jackie, please let me know and I will remove it, and apologize profusely.
Holly
Thanks so much for the ideas!! I'll go with the cream cheese raspberry mousse, my husband agrees with you guys! ...Hollyanna, I LOVE that picture you posted! That is so pretty. Do you think that's a stencil?? There's no way I'd be able to freehand that and have it look so neat!
~Carrie
Yes, I said it was from the yearbook.
The pattern book was only about 7 or 8 dollars at Hobby Lobby, when I bought it.
Holly
About the paisley cake pattern... I have a good idea of how to get the imprint of the pattern onto the cake, the pinprick method, (thanks Holly!), but does anyone know how I'd go about tracing it?? It looks really thin, so is it something like royal icing or something?? I saw something in the store tonight called a Wilton Icing Writer, but Im not sure if that's what I would use. Any ideas??
Carrie
I just use a #1 tip to trace it. It's very small. Use a thinned buttercream, or royal icing (if piping it onto fondant). I'm not sure what the icing writer is, but if it comes with its own tip, it's probably too large. Of course, you can make the flowers as large or as small as you want. Whatever is best for you, and you're most comfortable with.
I hope this has helped, and was what you meant.
Holly
Absolutely what I meant, thanks!! ...Is royal icing hard to work with?? I saw some mix for it, that you just add water to. Would that work?? Would I pipe it just like normal icing or is there more to it?
Yes, pipe it just like you would any icing.
I don't work with it a lot, because I use mostly buttercream, and royal icing breaks down if you put it directly on buttercream, but I have used it, and yes you can just buy the mix and use that. Just mix it up according to the package directions. You might have to mix longer, depending on the humidity, and whether or not you're using a stand mixer or a hand mixer. Stand mixers work a lot better, and faster, but I had a hand mixer until just recently and always used it.
Then use some black gel to color it, or whatever color you want, of course. If you find it too thick to pipe properly, just thin it down a bit, I'm pretty sure the mix package tells you how to do that too, until you get the consistency you can work with. I just add a teeny bit of water at a time. It doesn't take much, if I recall correctly.
Royal icing gets very hard, though. So when you cut the cake, it will probably just fall off and break apart. Of course, I don't see where that's a problem since you'll be cutting the cake, and eating it, but some people don't like that. So, if you're worried about that happening, or the person it's being made for would be upset over it, you might want to go ahead and use a thinned buttercream for the piping. It should be completely fine until it's actually cut through with a knife, though. So no worries about it crumbling on its own.
Hope this helps,
Holly
Awesome! Youve been so much help!! It will be going on fondant. I just figured it'd stay better if I did it in royal, since it does get so hard. I havent done a lot of work with buttercream, so I guess I'm kind of avoiding it. I'll be using cream cheese icing with the cake, and I don't know if I could just pipe that or if it has to be buttercream. I'm afraid to pipe something that might run off since I'll have to refrigerate the cake (which is why I'm going to use Satin Ice fondant bc it can be refrigerated with no problems). I just dont know enough about decorating yet!
Wonderful, sounds like you've got it under control.
I would say you could use the cream cheese icing for piping too, but I won't swear to that. I know it can be colored with the gel paste, like all other icings.
Maybe try it on a piece of fondant, stand it up on it's side, pipe a little, then leave it for a bit and see if it droops, falls, or runs off.
If you're still uncomfortable with using it, by all means use what you think will work best for you.
Good luck! I can't wait to see the finished cake!! Be sure to PM me when you post it, so I don't miss it.
Holly
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