Does anyone know if it is possible to do brush embroidery on IMBC? I love the recipe for Kaye's Italian Buttercream in the Whimsical Bakehouse book, but I am not sure if it will work for this cake. I am planning on doing a baby shower cake for my sister and I am not very comfortable with fondant yet and i don't really like the taste of regular shortening/powdered sugar icing. Dilemma! Any knowledge or advice would be appreciated. Thanks, Ann

The icing gets firm when refrigerated. You could use some softer buttercream to do the embroidery, if you are careful with the brushing.

If the base icing starts getting soft, pause and put the cake back in the fridge for a few minutes.

Thanks, JoAnn. I am new to all this, but I thought the b.e. had to be done in royal icing, or would that not work on IMBC? I want to do light green shamrocks on a white background.

I've never tried to do B.E. with IMBC, but I've done it with royal.

If I were to try it, I would definitely use a very firm brush. The cheap-o ones with the plastic bristles are actually good for this. You want to use a brush that will create that "line" texture.

Then I would probably experiement to see which works better - the base icing firm and the piped icing softer, or both the base and the piped soft.
I imagine you'd get different results with each of these.

The reason this works so well with royal is that you can soften the consistency of the royal with a wet brush, and then when you drag the brush through the edge of the line of piping it thins the icing (the water almost "melts" the royal a bit...) out but still creates the texture of embroidery.

IF this is going to work, you also have to be careful about how thick you make the piped icing - if you do too much, the base icing won't show through...

Good luck - I'll be curious to know if you get this to work.

Royal may not hold up on IMBC. As the icing warms to room temp (which it should before serving) is may melt the royal.

You can do brush embroidery with buttercream.

I can be done buttercream on buttercream, jus be careful not to dig on your base.
Edna