Hi everyone,

I'm new to cake decorating and i'm hoping somebody can give me some advice on dry times and pliability of fondant after using spray food coloring. I'm planning to spray white fondant strips with gold spray and the strips will later be placed on the lower tier of the cake in a vertical direction so as to make thick stripes. I'm wondering first, how long it will take for the color to dry and once it's dry will the fondant still be pliable enough to place on the cake as it will need to bend at the top of the cake? Would I be better off using a painting technique with powder and vodka so that it dries quicker?

Also while i'm here, if I refrigerate the cake which has already been covered with fondant will it be more difficult to adhere fondant decorations or should I do cover the cake with fondant and do the decorations at the same time? I won't have a lot of time so i'm trying to divide things up a bit. By the way, I heard it's fine to refrigerate fondant cakes as long as you box them first so the moisture doesn't melt the fondant.

Thanks for your help!

Whether you spray or stripes or use vodka and lustre dust, it's going to depend on how thick the application. You will want7 to apply your colour the same day your attaching the stripes to the cake. The colour obviously needs to dry and the stripes will need to get slightly firm, so you can pick them up and place them on your cake. If you make the stripes too soo, they will get hard and break. They need to be firm, but slightly pliable. Once stripes are on the cake, insert toothpicks underneath your stripes so they stay in place until there dry.

As far as refrigerating your cake. If you want to apply your stripes, your cake should be at room temperature, not cold. So you can add your stripes after refrigeration, or apply before and then put your cake in the fridge. 

Hope this helps.

Sorry for the delayed response, but thank you. Your answer was very helpful!! I am starting the cakes tonight so we'll see how it goes!