Hello everyone!
I'm making a Jack Daniels Bottle Cake for my friends 21st birthday. I want to know how to go about the color of the bottle. Should I frost it in a brown color and cover with clear gel? Or frost in white and color the gel brown. I could do fondant, but I have never done that before. What colors should I mix to get that "whiskey" color. I'm putting an edible image on it for the label. Any help would be great! Thanks!!!

I really think for this one you should try to tackle fondant as the frosting medium. After all it is YOUR cake right? If not, I say brown icing with the label and skip the piping gel. I don't know if a way to get the stuff on there without ruining the smooth icing job underneath.

Ive done stuff like that in buttercream before. You can spread piping gel over it and gently smooth it with a small angled spatula. I like to pipe it on with a basket weave tip (smooth side down), then smoothing it. If you refridgerate the cake to firm up the icing first it will help you not pull up the icing underneath when smoothing on the gel. I think you can do better things with fondant, but if you dont feel confident with it yet, I understand not wanting to try it. Try fondant on a practice cake first to get the feel of it. It takes practice.

I would frost in brown I think. That's how Ive usually done those types of cakes. I think the gel might eat your edible image though. Anyone know for sure? I know some mediums that are really wet, like whipped topping, will dissolve edible images too much. Even so, its still readable most of the time. Anyways, post photos when you are done! Im sure it will be great no matter what you choose to do.

A co-worker once told me, "You think too much, just go at it like you know what you're doing." LOL that actually helps sometimes.