Bride had a whole planned fondant cake with the colors white and ivory. But her budget changed and we had to change it to a simple buttercream four tiered cake, white, with ivory ribbon. Okay no problem.

However...

My noncrusting icing is not a pure white. The butter and the evaporated milk in it make it slightly off white. However if you look at my photos, I have a raspberry wedding cake and then a more recent calla lily cake, both done in this icing, and they look totally fine...actually the calla lily one, I actually had to ADD ivory color to make it ivory.

Finished this cake just now for this customer and somehow my icing (even though I used clear vanilla instead of the pure vanilla, to keep it as white as possible) matches the ivory ribbon I bought!

I guess I'll just hope that the lighting at the venue will be such that its not so noticeable....??? Ugh. And the cake itself is SUPER heavy and I was foolish and used a board that doesn't have a whole lot of clearance...I hope hubby can balance it all the way to the table for me. It was hard enough getting it into the fridge.

Ribbon cakes are so easy, in a way, but I had trouble getting them iced prettily and the cake just looks like a huge big old four tier lunk (not much clearance between tiers, its every two inches) all in ivory and nothing else, and will have nothing else but a topper on top, due to budget cuts. *sigh*

I just hope she doesn't complain and say "I wanted WHITE frosting...." It will be hard to explain that its the exact same icing that LOOKS white in my other photos, but when its next to ivory ribbon, it doesn't stand out as much. (And here I thought the ivory ribbon would make it look MORE white...boy was I wrong.)

Oh well. Cake will TASTE good anyway. She picked some yummy flavors.

Remember we are our own worst critics. I am sure it will be fine, and she will love it. Your work is always spot on, and this one will be no exception!

If she mentions anything, I would simply say, this is the white one achieves when using real buttercream. Great taste for a little less white.

I hope all goes well for you. I bet she will love the cake.

edited to add: Is it too late to get a darker ivory ribbon?

Too, I kinda hope the venue has darker lighting so I can blame it on that too.

just a suggestion here.. do you do contracts?

in my contracts I have a specific clause that allows me artistic changes when needed to preserve the taste and design of the cake.

It would cover something like this.
Just a thought for you to mull over. So you dont have to worry about things like this. Cake is stressful enough.

Wilton has a product that is something like white, white or a whitener for icing. I have used it on a wedding cake that had crusting cream cheese icing and of course it was Ivory and all the other tiers has white buttercream. You can add this to the icing and it will come out white and I don't think you can taste it. Also some one on here mentioned she puts a tiny bit of purple in the icing to make it white. I hope this has helped you!
evelyn

Yeah...I've used the white-white and also the tad purple before...but I didn't realize it was a problem until all the cakes were iced, refrigerated firm, and then I started wrapping ribbon.

I do have a contract on this one (we actually had to do a new one when she changed her design idea to a cheaper cake) but I don't have any "I can change things if I want" clause....

I actually thought for a second of going out and buying WHITE ribbon but figured that would cause even more problems. haha.

I just compared the leftover icing to a bowl of leftover royal icing and they are only like a shade apart, so my ivory ribbon must just be pretty light (and yes it IS ivory).... I guess I'll just explain (if she asks) that comparing buttery icing with dyed fabric is sometimes difficult, esp when dealing with white and ivory.

Of course then she'll be like "Okay why didn't you mention that before?"

Oh well hopefully it will all be okay! If its not, I'll give her a 5%-10% refund and whatever.

Could you put a white ribbon instead? Or would that not be okay? White is easier to find.

I heard on Martha Stewart show that there are 20 shades of white!

Good luck. I'm sure it is beautiful!!!

alright kitagirl post a pic of this cake.

I've always wondered (and never have experimented) but can you airbrush white color over ivory buttercream and get it whiter? Has anyone tried this? I know it's probably too late for you Kitagrl but perhaps this would work for someone else.

The picture you posted looks fine to me, maybe my eyes aren't as discerning?

Your cake looks beautiful. I hope your bride thought so too, she should have.

Thanks

Thats a very pretty cake! Its perfect. Your edges are so sharp and clean. It looks like you iced it in fondant! I cant see why she would complain, the cake is gorgeous.

Well done! Very pretty.....

Ur cake is simple but yet elegant!!!It is lovely...

I think it's very elegant and classic looking - great job. I can only hope to turn out a cake like that one day!

Looks beautiful, very elegant.