Is this possible? i need to paint cheetah print on a cake but the person does not want fondant. . .I know i'd have to have a GREAT CRUSTING buttercream but can it even be done is my ultimate question>if so is there any tips you have for me? Thanks so much in advance!

-Lauren

Oh I love painting on cakes and yes you will need a great crusting buttercream and a good bottle of everclear or vodka.

1. let cake crust
2. mix color and everclear or vodka to a thin consistancy but not too thin.
3. using a sterile paintbrush paint your design on cake

you can even create a variety of stencils of paws to keep them neat and trim looking. if you are not comfortable with freehand painting.

the alcohol evaporates and leaves the color behind.

http://cakecentral.com/gallery/1219978/skate-board-cake

This cake was buttercream and the whole top and sides were hand painted on. I used airbrush colors and soft paint brushes. It can be done, you just need a crusting icing (just used my regular recipe) and a soft touch.

WOW Thanks sooooo uch ladies i really appreciate it!

Truthfully I don't worry about crusting that much. I put that bad boy in the fridge to get rock hard (my American BC recipe is mostly butter) and then I go to town with the painting! The tie-dye cake in my pics is sponge-painted.

I am going to try this with cheetah print. Any tips for getting the perfect cheetah print with it so it looks even? is their a type of stencil of sorts???
Also so I use the gel colors mixed with vodka??

Yes use the gel colors mixed with vodka. Practice with some BC smeared on a piece of waxed paper. It should be very easy to do a cheetah print. Just do a Google image search and kind of follow that. Good luck!

did you consider piping the print on and then smoothing it out, that is how I do my camo. We have done cheetah print the same way in the past.

http://cakecentral.com/modules.php?name=Forums&file=viewtopic&t=659223&postdays=0&postorder=asc&&start=0

Here is the buttercream cake I did in leopard print. I used gel colors mixed with lemon extract. I think the extract dries faster than vodka. My secret is that I made sure the buttercream was very cold and hard before I started painting on it. Works great and goes really fast.

http://cakecentral.com/gallery/1998796/leopard-print-birthday-cake-for-friend

Just what I needed to hear!   I'm doing one this weekend and they don't want fondant on their cake.  What were the colors used brown and black?

Another option is butter cream cheetah..I do this cake constantly. 

Dang...sorry for the monster size pic...I resized before I hit submit.

ALoved it! Thanks for sharing!

AHi All,

For the base for of your leopard print buttercream cakes are you using just brown gel food coloring? My top tier cake is hot pink and I'm trying to get I'm trying to get a nice tan color and am having no luck. The color keeps turning this muddy sienna color. Your help is greatly appreciated:)

Jenna, are you using the chocolate brown gel color?  Cause i had the SAME thing happen to me. I painted the chocolate brown onto white fondant ...bottom tier (was trying to keep it from being too dark....usually to get a dark brown I mix a little black...but i didn't do that this time cause i was trying to go light tan)  This is what happened.  It looks so orange in the photo...not so much in person...but against that brown, it looked so orange for sure.  What is wrong with the chocolate brown????

that is amazing!!!  love it!!  thank you for the idea.