I am planning a treasure map cake for my grandson’s birthday next week.  I would like to only use buttercream...no rolled fondant...but I would like the effect seen on the cake here.

https://ayarel.deviantart.com/art/Treasure-Map-Cake-360995068

Any advice as to how to get the parchment look in the middle with buttercream and still have the border of white around the edge?  Hope I am making sense.  Thanks.

Kris

It looks like some very light, precise airbrushing was done on that cake. If you don't have an airbrush machine, it might be difficult to recreate this the same way.

I'm thinking it might be possible to brush on some brown and gold luster dust to create the parchment. Or you could use light brown frosting, pipe the edge of the parchment shape on top, fill it in and smooth it out. Might look heavy, though.

I would let the icing crust and then lightly dust with cocoa powder - just trial it on a bit of icing that is not on the cake first to see if you can get the effect you want.