Hi I've been asked to put a mini champagne bottle in the corner of a square cake. Around the top edge where the bottle is to go it has to have the edge of a champagne bucket effect. Anyone any ideas on the best way of doing this of putting the bottle in the cake without it ripping out the side, and to lean against the bucket? I'm concerned about putting a bottle in a cake for health reasons too - I was thinking of wrapping the base in cling film (wrap)? Thanks for any ideas/tips/help please

A real one? I think most people make an edible one in this case, especially for the weight factor.

I would def wrap the bottle in clingfilm and even leave a little over the top of the cake for hygiene and for easy removal - you can trim it down properly later when the sugarpaste is on. I would use ganache as a crumb coat and final coat of your icing because IMO it is much stronger than buttercream under fondant. Once ganached and set, use an apple corer (pineapple corer would be better for size if you have one) and remove plugs of cake at the angle and to the depth you need for the bottle to fit. I would be inclined at this point to dip the clingfilmed champagne bottle in ganache to make it stick actually. Then cover with sugarpaste but you'd have to make a hole in the sugarpaste in the right place. Or you could put the bottle in afterwards I guess, but I would put liquid ganache in the hole where the bottle goes and let it set up.

I've never done it, but that's probably the way I'd do it.