Ok. So this is my first wedding cake. It's a dummy cake and I've already asked a ton of questions on it, and I thank you . I did a couple of practice cakes, however none were two or more tiers. I finally finished this cake, using all royal icing. And numerous things went wrong.

1). I was nervous to free-hand the scrollwork, so I tried using press-in stencils, however, since the cake is in royal icing, it couldn't be pushed in. Sooo... being the cake decorator extraordinaire that I am not, I decide to use a mixture of red colour and glycerine. And of course, it bleeds in. It looks horrible!! (see pic). So fine, that will be the back of one tier. I dropped the stencil and went with free-hand.

2). This might be my third time using RI. I totally and completly forgot that the colour fades in sunlight. So half of my biggest tier is one colour, the other half is another

3). I am having the hardest time getting the ribbon on!! I foolishly thought that would be easy. Trying to get it on even and smooth is really hard!!

Soooo... does anyone have any suggestions?? I'm really at a loss of what else to do. I'm thinking I should just find the best sides, make them the front, and hope no one looks at the back

There will be roses on the top and a few here and there on the sides.. but this is basically it. I've stepped away from the cake.. hoping when I go back I won't see as many flaws (ya right). Please be brutally honest. If worse comes to worse I'll have to figure something out and re-do it in real cake (which is absolute last resort since I'm in the wedding and it's going to be a very hectic day to begin with).

sorry i can't help you with your questions but I think it looks great

I think the final cake looks pretty good! Can you do a fondant cake? Then you could still press the stencils in.

Honestly, if you were doing my wedding cake and that's what you delivered on the day of, I'd cry - hysterically. The cake is a big part of the reception and as a professional, you can't possibly "pick the best sides and hope nobody looks at the back". Would you buy a dress that had a stain at the butt and just hope nobody notices it? I don't think you would.

You said the cake is ALL royal - did you ice it in Royal??????? That could be part of your problem, I think.

I mean, at this point - what are your options? Do you have time to re-do it? I don't want to come accross as mean, but, delivering this cake to a bride would just be, um, unprofessional. Maybe you shouldn't have promised something you weren't sure you could deliver? Too late to change the design to something more attainable? Maybe not use so much scroll work? Try using the stencil again, this time on a fondant covered cake?

Ok, the quality of the picture makes it a little hard to see the scrollwork and ribbon clearly, but I think it's a really pretty cake.

I think it's a good idea to step away from the cake for a bit and come back. With strategic flower placement to hide the things you're not happy with, you could really hit a home run!

Christy

Well, the bleeding is bad. But I can't see a color difference. And the picture of the whole cake looks really good. So if you can hide the bleeding with flowers, I think you're golden! Good luck to you, I hope it all turns out right for you in the end.

do you have to use RI?...why not BC?....scrollwork can be difficult sometimes, but just take is slow and it should work out. What i like to do is draw out some of my own scrollwork on paper then just look at the paper as i am free-hand doing the scollwork on the cake...is the scollwork out of RI also?
from the last picture of the whole cake it looks really good...if you can just cover up the flaws that you see that are really bad, like really bad, (like ones that ordinary people would notice...not the flaws you the decorator notice)with flowers then i think its fine.
otherwise can't help ya much...but it looks great to me...

I agree with karateka, the pic of the whole cake looks pretty good. If you can't cover the mistakes with flowers, then can you start over with the dummy? Someone else suggested fondant, is that an option? I know it's frustrating, but you've got a good start! It takes lots of practice. You can do it!!!

I agree with the others... cover the flaws in flowers... unless you have time to re-do... then I would do fondant with the stencils. I use RI or BC for scrollwork... As for the ribbon.... did you measure the width of the ribbon from the base of each tier and leave a "white zone"? Meaning that you did not do the scrollwork where you wanted to put the ribbon... I've noticed that some decorators tend to forget to leave a "white zone" for the ribbon and therefore the ribbon does not lay flat... I think the picture of the overall cake looks ok... but, if you can do it over... then I would... just my thoughts...

Ok, now I feel sick to my stomach However.. I shouldn't be surprised cause I do realize it doesn't look great. Ok.. and again, please be honest. Is everyone suggesting fondant so I can keep using the stencil because my free-hand isn't very good? I went with RI for the whole thing because a few people suggested it so I could make the cake ahead of time and have less stress the day of the wedding. I could remove all the RI from the tiers tonight, let the dummies dry, and try with fondant tomorrow if everyone thinks that would be for the best. Would the RI red bleed into fondant? My other thought would be to just re-do the section where it all bled in. It's not a big section because it's where I first started so I dropped it pretty quickly seeing how it was going.

KellyAnne1284 wrote:

Like I said, this is for my cousin's wedding so it's not a paying client. This is her wedding gift. Not that I care any less for how my cake turns out, but this was a design she loved and I said I would give it a try. I'm actually pretty confident if I were to show up with the cake as-is, she wouldn't care in the least. She's been really laid back about the whole wedding and in general, everything rolls off her back. My thought is that yes, KellyAnne is right, the cake tends to be a centerpiece at a reception, and over a hundred people will be looking at this cake.

Shaela wrote:

I did leave a 'white zone', there were only a few places I went under, but was able to remove them.

Ok... that's good... I don't think the overall cake is that bad... and as for the other quote you noted... don't take that too hard... I think the scroll work looks ok... I didn't think you didn't make a promise you couldn't deliver on... I just think you had one of those moments as we all do... when we look at some thing we have done and we know it is not our best work... Anyhow, I have never had bleeding on fondant... but, I am speaking for myself and my experiences... so I think you would be safe with fondant. As for making it in advance with RI... I have made dummies weeks in advance for bridal shows and what not and have never had a stressful moment. Fondant get nice and hard over time... Best of luck to you... post a pic after you deliver it!!! I am sure it will be beautiful!!!

Darlin', don't sweat it. Stuff happens and it happens to all of us. Overall the pic looks good. *WE* see the flaws but most people don't.

I ice all of my dummies in BC .... you don't have to use royal. BC will make it easier.

When you had a problem with the ribbon, did you find you had a gap at the top of the ribbon? If so, this just means your icing is not perfectly straight ..... it's slightly sloped with more at the bottom (like a subtle ski slope). This frustrated me for a long time (which is why I prefer square cakes!) but found a way to make it work.

Use a bench scraper to do the initial smoothing on the sides. With the bench scraper, you can set it perpendicular to the cake with the one side flat on the counter .... this will give you a perfect 90 degree angle. If you have any space between the cake and the bench scraper, then your icing is not perfectly straight. Add more icing and then re-scrape.

The secret to a snug ribbon is a perfectly straight, 90 degree side.

[quote="KellyAnne1284"]Honestly, if you were doing my wedding cake and that's what you delivered on the day of, I'd cry - hysterically. The cake is a big part of the reception and as a professional, you can't possibly "pick the best sides and hope nobody looks at the back". Would you buy a dress that had a stain at the butt and just hope nobody notices it? I don't think you would.

I wouldn't cry hysterically, overall the basic cake looks great! Just hide the "noticeable" flaws with flowers. The colors look very nice! I have a hard time with ANY close fitting scrolls, I like mine a little spaced out..but this looks really good maybe fit in some smaller scrolls also where there might be a small gap, because you are doing the tighter scrolling and I just see a few small gaps....but really it doesn't look horrible, and for doing your first scroll work on your first wedding dummy...Well I just think you did a fine job!! Just take this as practice ;D

And as I see it you are doing a lovely gift gesture.... and have a lovely heart...AND that my DEAR is VERY PROFESSIONAL ;D


IMHO!

Awww.. Thanks wgoat5. I needed that. Well I just removed all the icing from the middle tier and I'm going to attempt fondant. I figure if that doesn't work, it would be easier than trying to take off RI again, and lastly trying fondant. Thank you everyone for all your advice!! If I get this middle tier done tonight, I'll post with an update.

It sounds like you've got a lot of good advice on how to fix some of your noticeable mistakes. I think you're being too hard on yourself too. The cake is really pretty. I love the red.

Your cousin should be very happy.

You know...scroll work isn't something that is hard per say...it's how you do it that can make it hard....When making scroll work (which I have been practicing for a few up coming cakes), I like to be able to be almost at eye level with the cake....SO the way I do it is sit my turntable a little higher up then it already sits.....and I just let it flow...if I concentrate to hard it makes it harder ( I don't know why but it does) If I kinda just let my hand do it without thinking to much then it just really goes on smoothly!! Good luck with your fondant and please don't give up!!! You are doing a lovely job....Oh yeah ... a GREAT friend on CC told me the trick to scroll work is the right consistancy of bc .....so if using bc thin down a little bity bit with some corn syrup!


HTH

I think you've done a great job! I hope it works out!

to be honest I would take all the red off sand the white Ri smooth patch it with more ri if you have a lot of damage and apply fondant Then do the scroll work after the fondant has sat overnite the ribbon will go on much smoother on fondant. HTH

Kelly, honey, what's with the drama? I've seen so-called professional cakes that didn't look this good!

If the wedding were tomorrow, I'd just place the flowers over the bleeding part and try to "disguise" the problem areas...just like when I get dressed!

Since you are scraping, I'd highly recommend fondant. Since no-one's going to eat it, you can even use stinky Wilton Fondant. It's pretty easy to use. You can imprint the scrolls and go over them with red RI. The fondant will get rock-hard, and the bride can keep her cake forever, if she'd like. You've a very lucky family member to go through all of this stress for her! Hang in there, wedding cakes do get easier!

indydebi wrote:

I think that's exactly the problem. My RI isn't as even as it should be. I'm hoping the fondant works out and that will help with the ribbon.

wgoat5 wrote:

I agree with this! It seems the more you try to concentrate to make it perfect, the less perfect it comes out. I like the turntable idea and will definately try that on round 2.

This cake I think has been cursed.. I have some Wilton fondant in my cupboard which I figure is good enough since no one is eating it. And it's just shy of being enough to cover the middle tier. So off to Michael's I go.. AND THEY'RE OUT!!! I head over to the Bulk Barn, which is the only other place to get cake supplies and they don't carry it. I was hoping for the easy way out instead of making MMF. Oh well... thank you all again for your encouraging comments. I'm starting to calm down and feel a bit better. It's just so stressful being my first big cake. Love you guys!!!


I'm off to make some mmf now...

I didn't mean to be hard on the poster or make her feel bad...I don't know why everyone is jumping down my throat. She asked for people to be brutally honest and that's what I was.

I have faith that you can fix it. I'm glad you're going to try fondant, which is what I originally suggested...much easier to work with, you should have less bleeding and the stencils should work better. Be sure to dull the edges of your dummies before applying the fondant. And if you have it, use some piping gel to attach the fondant to the dummy...it'll be nice and smooth....smoother than if you used icing. I'm looking forward to an update.

If you are having trouble with the scrolls on the second go around, you could put a few dots/ pearls along side of the scroll in white. It's a good trick to hide any bleeding or wrong turns in the scrolls. Or you could do the scrolls in white and pipe over them again in red. Hope that helps

Oops I'm sorry I meant to say put the dots along side all of the scrolls. Kind of consistantly inconsistant. If ya know what I mean.

Do you have a hot glue gun? If so make a do it yourself stamp for your scolls....it's thick...and will dry quickly and it can give you a basic scroll shape...then press it into the fondant, bc or what have you and add your detail

*Update*

I just wanted to give everyone an update. I re-did the cake using fondant. Much better. Still not perfect but I definately felt more confident with this one. I just wish the roses would've opened up a bit more. All I can say is what a learning experience this past week as been. Although considering it's my first wedding cake, I'm happy with it. But there was sooo much stress!! I can't thank you all enough for your help. And thank you to Gracefull for the idea for this cake.

Great job on the scroll work!!!! Aren't ya glad you got your first wedding over with ?

Good on youfor fixing something you were nt proud of the finished cake looks awesome i bet your cousin loved it! Hope your having a big glass ofwine!!

That turned out so beautiful! I am proud of you. You went through a lot of troubles and trials but in the end you overcame them .

I'm wondering how long the red scrolls were on the fondant? Did you have any trouble with them bleeding? According to the picture there was none but I'm wondering about up close. If not then I'll know to use RI from now on with the colors that tend to bleed.

Oh my goodness! It's so pretty. Sorry you were so stressed but you really pulled off a great job.

It is just lovely! I'm so in love with the red and white combo.

Beautiful job!