Hi everyone!

I'm pretty new around here. I've been decorating cakes at a pretty basic level for about 5 years now. I mainly use buttercream icing but have made a few small cakes with rolled buttercream.

I was recently laid off work so I started offering to do simple cakes for people in my small town (there is no competition here and people are not very picky at all!) So far it has been easy - I haven't had too many difficult requests.

I was just asked by someone to do their wedding cake (still 5 months away). I have only ever done one wedding cake (my own, so not a lot of pressure!!) and the cake this person wants looks somewhat difficult. I'm very creative, so I am confident that I can make this cake, but still have a few questions for ways to make it easier. I do have 5 months until I need to make it, so I figure that is plenty of time to learn what I need to in order to make this cake great!

Anyway, I'm wondering if there is anywhere I can order premade and precoloured fondant? The colours on this particular cake are dark red and black and I'm not sure I can get such dark colours using my Wilton gel colours without making it taste funny (I've tried in the past and could taste the colouring!) I am planning to use white rolled buttercream as the "base" icing, and use the premade/precoloured stuff for the stripes and other dark details, if I can get it?

Anyone know if this exists, or have any tips for me on how to get dark colours without it affecting the taste?

This is also my first "topsy turvy" cake, so any tutorials or tips on that would be appreciated too! I plan on doing a "test run" of this cake ahead of time.

Here's a picture of the cake this person wants:

Looks like a fun cake to do. You can diffinately buy precolored fondant and it is a good idea with such dark colors. I think black is especially hard to make yourself. I have used satin ice brand fondant and ordered it online. There are many companies that carry it. For the topsy turvy design, there is a good tutorial here on CC under the articles. I made my first wedding cake back in August and it was a topsy turvy. That design is so popular these days. It was also my first topsy turvy. I had no problems. I'm sure you will be more than ready to do yours in 5 mo.

When needing dark or difficult colored fondant, I always order it! I use Satin Ice and Chocopan. Satin Ice has alot of different colors and I believe chocopan just started offering a wider selection of colors. Chocopan is made with white chocolate. Tastes great but can be difficult to work with but I like it.

I order from two different websites:

www.sugarcraft.com

www.cakesbysam.com

Hope that helps