I am doing my sisters birthday cake later this month and want to do a hot pink icing with black pipeing (like lace design).
So far I have only covered cakes with sugar paste (wedding ones) but wanted to try buttercream.

I have a couple questions:

1. is it easy to get a good hot pink colour with buttercream?
2. when icing buttercream how long do you leave it before decorating?
3. before icing do you do a crum coat with the buttercream?
4. while i am waiting for it to set to decorate do i store it in a cool dry place like sugar paste or in the fridge?
5. how long does it last once applied to the cake?

If someone could help me with my most likely stupid questions, that would be great!
I did try searching for instructions in the articles or forums but didn't have much luck either I am not looking hard enough or this is something people generally know!

Thank you!

There are some great videos on youtube where people show how to ice a cake with buttercream and make it smooth. Look for sugarshack and tonedna especially - they have great videos!

1. Getting hot pink - many people have talked about getting hot pink when trying to get red. You can use either pink or red paste color. Make sure to let it set to allow the color to deepen, overnight is great.
2. You can start decorating immediately but what most of us find is that once you have your icing on and fairly smooth, it's good to let it set for around 15 minutes then go back and smooth it. There are several threads on here about smoothing buttercream. After it's smooth, you can decorate immediately.
3. Some people crumb coat, some don't. If I use the big icer tip, I don't usually crumbcoat.
4. Letting it set on the countertop is fine. If you are using a IMBC or SMBC, I think some people put in the refrigerator to let it set up harder but I don't using those kinds of icing.
5. Not really sure about this question, but the icing should last as long as the cake does. Unless you are using a SMBC or IMBC or cream cheese buttercream, it won't go bad. I would refrigerate if using one of those types of buttercream.

HTH!

Everything you ever wanted to know about making your 1st tiered/stacked/layer cake (w/either fondant or b/c):

http://www.cakecentral.com/cake-decorating-ftopict-605188-.html

HTH

Check this tutorial..

Thank you very much for all your help!
I am much clearer on the subject now!