I have a client that wants a dummy buttercream cake covered in coconut. I don't know how well this will hold up, so I suggested doing royal icing instead. Her only concern is that the cake and/or coconut will attract ants or other insects. I'm relatively inexperienced in the vacinity of dummy cakes, so if anyone has any suggestions, I would REALLY appreciate it. Thanks!

Well it does depend on where one lives. If you can keep coconut in your cupboard w/o problems then it should be o.k. on the cake.

There is nothing to doing a dummy cake in b'cream No real reason to have to do it in royal unless you *really* want to.

I do all of my dummy cakes in BC. I've never had ants or any other kind of critters around my dummies and I've had them sitting around for years.....they hold up great.

Does she want it for a wedding? If so, it won't attract any more bugs while sitting there than a real cake would. If she wants it for a display for a length of time .... like I said, I've had the same dummies sitting around for over a couple of years.

Thanks so much! I really wasn't sure that the buttercream would hold up well over time. Glad to hear that it should be ok. I appreciate the feedback!