Hi!

Well, I have gotten myself into a pickle. I offered to do a wedding cake for free, for a missionary who couldn't afford a cake. I wasn't expecting such a tricky cake though!

She sent me a swatch of this fabric which she wanted incorporated into the cake. I came up with the design below, but now I am torn on how to actually do the design.
The "fabric" will come in as decorative boarders along the cakes edges.... but should i cut out the shape of fondant and then pipe the intricate design with royal and then hand paint that?

Or do you think it would look good to just paint the design onto the cake?

Any ideas appreciated along with any tweaks you would make.

This cake was supposed to be done in June but we are moving out of state (it was unexpected!) so I now have to rush to get this done and it will be kept in a deep freezer until the wedding next month.

Thanks for any ideas!

I think it would be so awesome to make an all white fondant covered cake, then model a peacock to sit on the top and have that fabric be the tail feathers coming down in a cascade around the cake. Then you could make all the pieces ahead with no problems!

Is she against peacocks? That fabric totally looks like a peacock to me!

Here are some cakes for inspiration that could work with that fabric:

http://www.bride.ca/wedding-ideas/images/Blog/Cakes/Vancouver/PeacockWeddingCake.jpg


http://www.cakesandmore.org/blog/wp-content/uploads/2008/09/2785175457_a69c30214a.jpg


http://www.cakeoccasions.com.au/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2009/12/peacock-cake.jpg

I think what you have planned is great.
You don't want the cake to over power her dress, but the way you have it, people will recognize the corleation between the two.
And by the way... very nice of you!

I think I would ask for a longer sash of fabric, and drape it down the sides of the cake on the wedding day.

For a couple of reasons...you have to do it early and the cake is to be stored until the wedding day....no telling what cracks or imperfections might develop on the thaw, so you've got a ready made solution that will look terrific.

Add in some plain pearls along each tier, some flowers where the fabric drapes in (silk or gumpaste) and TADA!

Second reason, you're moving, and doing it for free...whatever is easiest on you, and will be a cake you can be happy with, and not stressed over in the day.

HTH!!

The second link from KHalstead, with the peacock on top with the fabric as the tail, is the one I like best.
Or you could cut a ribbon out of the fabric to go around each tier.

It must be stored for a month, so I wouldn't try to make it fondant or icing.

It's free, it's your design.

I read a tutorial once where someone copied fabric by laying waxed paper over it and "piped" the design with non-toxic puffy paint. (I've used royal icing and that worked). Once the paint/icing dries you have a custom made impression mat that you can press into the side of the cake or pieces of fondant and pipe over the impression. HTH!

Your design is lovely. It is very nice to volunteer to do the cake. I hope they appreciate all the work you put into it and I know they will be pleased with anything you do.

If it was me I would do a loose interpretation of the design. I think based on the time constraint and the fact this is a give away I think the bride would uderstand if you didn't do a perfectly detailed replica of every design. I love your original design. With the tiers that have the shapes with the deisgns I would cut appliques of the base colors out of fondant and then use RI to pipe in the finer details.

i like the idea of painting on it. you could paint, and then do some royal icing piping for some of the lines (like the black blue or gold (or all three) that outlines the designs) to add some texture.

I love the idea of making the pieces stick out from the cake a little and since they are relatively the same shape, it immediately made me think of Sharon Zambito's cake that her team did for the Ultimate Cake Off.

I love this look for the bottom tier. You can totally make these ahead of time and let them dry.

Thank you, thank you for all the suggestions. I wished I had asked earlier- in the end, getting fabric was not an option since the bride is still over seas and will only be home a couple of weeks before her wedding, and I am moving- next week so this bad boy had to get done.

In the end, I stuck to my sketch, and used both fondant cutouts and royal icing to recreate some of the detail. I must say I think the cake is stunning, and I am VERY glad it is over. It's in my pics

I will be deep freezing it until a few days before the wedding in a couple of weeks. I've heard not to do that but had a client who HAD to do it and the cake looked and tasted fine.

Thanks again for all the help!