I have a ton of flowers to do for a wedding next Saturday and have a question about steaming. I carefully colored the lower tier "trunk" of my most recent cake but after I steamed it I could no longer discern the nuances. I thought steam just "set" the color and gave a nice sheen to the fondant. If I'm going to lose all the hard work I put into dusting, what's the point? See pictures below...bark just looks plain brown to me. I colored some of the highest edges with white but I can't see that at all post steaming!
The cake looks great to me. Of course I did not see it before you steamed it. Others here should know more about why the white is not showing. I am just a hobby cake maker and I think your cake is nice looking!!!
Thank you. I make cakes on my down time too since I work as a full time Biologist, so it sure isn't my profession! I "just" make the special occasion cakes for my work plus the rare "outside" cake. Steep learning curve!
When I look at the close up of the bark, I do see more nuances than I thought were there, but not the white edges. Maybe it's the white that fades to nothing with steam? I hope so because I have a ton of flowers to make & dust! I don't want to lose the nuances.
I'm a hobby baker too. But been doing over 10 years now. Learned a few tricks. I've never steamed a cake. Only gumpaste flowers. I've enhanced a cake with homemade shiny shelac. Corn syrup & alcohol. Steaming sets colours it's true, but for textures to pop, I dry dust with colour dusts and lustre dust. No added shine.
Since this is your bottom tier, with nothing below to be contaminated with any stray dust, you should be able to get by without steaming. Also, you can add highlights by using dusts mixed with alcohol which doesn't need to be steamed.
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