Evening all, 

Just wanting a little advice on how to go about making this cake for a friends party. I've never done anything like this before and wondering whether this pattern should be piped with royal icing and then painted with a gold lustre to achieve the colour? What tip would you use? 

Any tips or advice on making this would be very much appreciated. 

Thanks in advance. 

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I've done gold piping like this before.

I piped with royal icing and then painted gold mixed with vodka. I did a couple light layers, drying thoroughly between...if it wasn't dry enough it would pull the paint off. 

I would use tip 2 or 3.   I would use royal and paint like Scampbell731 stated.  

The tip you would use depends on the strength of your piping hand.  I personally would NOT use a 3 - I'd probably use a 1 or 2.

I painted piped royal icing before and find it a pain. If you are not super carefully it looks sloppy and you can never cover everything without getting paint on the fondant. Using yellow RI might help but I saw recently on here someone using gold tinted RI and I think that would be the best and neatest way.

Billiant thank you for your advice everyone. Yes i was thinking of adding a colour to the royal icing first to make it look more cream/beige/gold as a base before applying the lustre .

What consistency of royal icing would you recommend? I have some ready made as well as a make up your own box as wasnt sure on which would be the best. 

I made this Henna style cake a few years ago when I was starting out; it's just pipped royal icing using the smallest Wilton "dot" tip..I think it was the #3? And then I used a small wet paint brush to touch up as I went.

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Thats beautiful piping @Gingerlocks ‍! What was your consistency of the RI like? I'm guessing i'm just going to have to play around with a mock up to see how it goes.

The consistency is up to you but should be on the soft side.  You don't want to make your hand hurt but also don't want the icing to be runny either.  

@Lousbakehouse ‍ I used a really firm RI for this. You don't want it to run or "move".

Just wanted to say thanks for the tips and to share my cake that I made at the weekend... pretty pleased with it. Was my first ever 2 tier cake too! 

Thanks again for the advice

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That's pretty awesome, well done you!!!

Beautifully done!!!