I'm making my first wedding cake in the next few weeks and am planning to put fondant pearls around each tier and dust them with pearl dust to make them shiny. When is the best time to apply it?

TIA

I just did a cake with pearls. One tip is to paint the pearls with vodka while on the cake, let it air dry a bit, it will still be tacky, then with a dry brush, dust the pearl powder on. That's how I found it worked best for me. You may want to wrap the cake with plastic wrap in order to prevent dust dropping down onto the cake itself. If it does, just use the vodka to erase it. It works!

It seems to me if you dust the pearls first, you will get fingerprints on it as you place them on the cake.

I have the first impressions mold and I definitely advise you to freeze them before popping them out. They hold their shape much better.

Oh, I just did this! (my pink square cake in photo gallery.) It was so easy to just premake the pearls, let them dry, then place them in a bowl and just dry brush them with a cosmetic blush brush (designated just for that) and they are ready to apply!
Now, after that, I did end up brushing my entire cake with the dust, just decided it looked better, but this would prevent getting the dust all over the cake where you DON'T want it.

If you don't want the dust on the cakes, the best way to do it is to make the pearls first and then dust them with the dust and then stick them on the cake as the boarder. Here is a great tutorial on how to do them.

http://www.creativecelebrationcakes.co.uk/page36.htm

HTH.

I just dropped the premade pearls that had dried into a zip loc bag, sprinkled in a little dust, and shook the bag. They were even. Then I applied them with tweezers. First a made a VERY thin line of royal icing around the cake to glue them on. That was individual pearls. If you are doing a strand, you have to put them on before they dry so they don't break apart. Brush the mold before you put the fondant in it, they will come out dusted.

So - I just did this for a baby shower cake and had to make 200 soap bubbles. The best way I found was to pre-make all balls and let them dry for about 48 hours. I used a bowl but a bag would work too, add some of your pearl or luster dust as well as vodka or clear vanilla (dries faster with these) to make a slurry and then drop in a handful at a time and roll around till they are all coated evenly. Then pour them out onto a cookie sheet (with sides) separate and let dry for about 20 - 30 minutes. I would suggest trying it out first to make sure you get the right color. I did white and pink balls and then rolled them in white pearl dust with vanilla and they were perfect!!! If you do it this way and let them dry for a while then you can touch them with out fear of finger prints.

Good luck!!

is there a big difference in appearance when u put it on dry vs. using vodka?

I just made a bow last weekend and used a blush brush (for cakes only, of course) to apply the dust on dry. Worked very well.

I think when I use it wet, I get a more even coat of dust. It just depends on the look I am going for. If I want them to be subtle, no vodka, but it does brush off this way. The vodka acts the same as water as a "gluing" agent, only it is high in alcohol content, so it dries much much faster than water.

Thank you all so much for your replies. Helps me greatly.

I know you steam some things to make the dust stick once it's on, so I'd think that would work for pearls as well as flowers, wouldn't it?