Hi again,

Somebody please tell me if the method I'm using is going to produce the results I'm after. I've been trying to do this just about all day and I'm driving myself nuts!

I think I may have misunderstood the outcome of using vodka and gel coloring to paint on a cake. I originally thought you could use this method to get a soft background color on a white cake like you would get using an airbrush. I don't have an airbrush machine at home so I thought I was going to be able to "paint" the backgrounds. But I'm finding that no matter how much I vary the amount of vodka and the amount of color, I get streaks and unevenness when I paint across a crusted cake. Here's what I'm talking about in the attached picture. I saw a picture of a really nice cake with a pink pig on it. Just to see if I could do the method, I tried painting the pig on crusted icing on a cake board. You can see the splotchy-ness on the pig. I can also see the brush strokes when I look at it. Do you just need to air brush to get the soft effect?
Thanks,
Julie



PS - KHalstead, you uploaded a couple of pictures of cakes where you painted on them. One was a lighthouse. Is the sky part of that one airbrushed?

I've only ever painted on fondant and dried royal icing. I wouldn't think you coug get any better results that what you've shown above painting on BC.

I have only panted on fondant and GP as well. It seems like it would be terribly hard to make it even like an air brush could do. If there is a method to doing this I would be interested to know

I don't think you can achieve the look of airbrush without an airbrush.... it's hard not to get the brush strokes... DH paints on fondant and one thing I can tell you is... the brush that you use makes a huge difference... the quality of the bristles and the type is something you need to make sure you use right... I would google on what type of brush to use for what type of effect you want... also the bigger the design you paint... the harder it is to get an even painted look... I hope you find a way to resolve this issue... and if u do... please share lol

I agree with the others, Crusting buttercream is hard to paint on with a brush using color and vodka. I have used piping gel and colored it and then filled in the outline to get a more even color. I did this a few years ago to do an indian head with a headress on it for a graduation cake. I even used a sm paintbrush to fill in the sm areas with the colored piping gel.