AHello all! I've been looking at a few posts but didn't see anything that answered my specific question, so here goes. I am looking to do a "very hungry caterpillar cake" as a gift to my friend's son. I'd like the foods on it to look more like the book and less "cartoonish". Like picture 1 and not picture 2. Any tips out there for painting with this type of striated technique? Do you think it was painted directly on a white background, or the pieces may have been colored to start? What would you do? Thanks in advance! Picture 1: [IMG]http://cakecentral.com/content/type/61/id/3168484/width/200/height/400[/IMG] Found at http://blog.elainessweetlife.com/2012/05/very-hungry-caterpillar-cake.html?m=1 via a google search. Upon reading it looks like she painted into plain white fondant.

Picture 2: [IMG]http://cakecentral.com/content/type/61/id/3168485/width/200/height/400[/IMG] found at setupparty.com via a google search. No original artist indicated.

Welcome victoriaashley!

I hope this site will be a good source of information for you.

In your first picture the pieces look to me as if they were painted and then applied but you could paint directly on the white fondant if you wanted to.  The second picture is all colored fondant.  As I do not paint very well, my choice would be to color fondant and attach like the second photo.  I really like the second cake (very clean) so I may be biased also :)

Jeanne

AI tend to be drawn to 'cleaner' looks like JWinslow but the first cake is Eric C!

She cut the pieces out and painted them, might be better then painting directly on the cake since you haven't done this before. I imagine she put the cutouts directly on the cake before painting since they are curved and not flat-painting the pieces and attaching before they dry can cause smudges but waiting for them to dry, then attaching after they dry will make them more flat (rather then shaped to the cake). Your choice just depends on the look you want.

Practice on a spare strip to get the proper consistency. I mix gel or powder colors with vodka-this evaporates so don't worry.

There's a free Craftsy class on hand painted cakes plus many YouTube tutorials.

A

Thank you! So far it has been a wealth of information. I have been stalking the site for a while and finally joined yesterday :) I do love the second cake, but I wanted it to look more like Eric Carle's handiwork :)

Thank you, I will check out some tutorials and see what I can find. I've painted before and always used lemon juice. Is there a reason to use vodka over lemon juice, or is it just a matter of personal preference. I'll also have to look into powdered colors, I haven't seen those but my local bake supply shop may have them :)

Vodka has a high alcohol content, so it evaporates faster than lemon juice and it won't melt the fondant. I put these tips together after I did a painted cake at one point, and the free Craftsy class has some good tips. http://acaketorememberva.blogspot.com/2013/05/tips-for-painting-on-cakes.html

ARight, sorry I didn't explain why I use alcohol-some use extracts also, whatever you're comfortable with,your extracts probably have alcohol in them too ;) but as Kara said, it evaporates quicker.

I have tons of powdered and gel colors, they both work well. I've been working on sugar flowers so I've been adding to my powdered colors & dusts. The dusts are nice for dry dusting but you won't need to worry about that for this cake.

Definitley, check out Kara's blog (above) she has TONS of advice, tips, & tutorials you'll find helpful!