Hello clever cakers. It’s my dads 70th birthday soon. He collects art nouveau antiques and I would love to make him an art nouveau style cake. 

I’m using this bowl as my inspiration. 

I want to use the ivy pattern repeatedly around the cake. I’ve printed it out and have laid out the fondant which I think looks great. 

I want to do 2 on each side of a square cake. I guess it would make sense to make them in advance on a thin plaque of the same colour as the cake background. Then I can make them in advance and just apply them to the cake. I can link them with some more extruded green. 

Does that sound ok? Do you think it looks too girly? I didn’t want to make it silver so have tried to choose colours that are authentic for the period. The background will be an antique cream color.

I’m worried it looks a bit clunky. It was just a first attempt so I would thin out the leaves a bit better for the real thing. 

I think you did a great job of duplicating the pattern.  I really can;'t say if it's chunky.....my 1st impression is no it's not   but until seen 'for real'  on a cake or at least in person you can't tell for sure.    The outter rope around the leaves looks like it's cracked or is that on purpose?  Are you going to put the 'handle' design between the two on each side &/or edge each sq with the rest of the nouveau design? 

I think it is beautiful!  I like the color and you might try dusting in in spots with a gray or brown, just to add depth.  Your idea of making them in advance sounds good to me.

Thank you both for your helpful replies.  

The green rope was cracked coming out of the extruder. What can I add to fix that? Glycerin?

I don’t think I’ll do the whole handle design but maybe something along the edges to make the cake less angular. 

Good point about dusting with some grey or brown. It definitely needs depth. 

yes like you said thinner — another thing — the perimeter of the leaf is turned up just a tad — just slightly rolled up around the edge rather than the norm of being flattened and thinned out — you’ll get a completely different shape to the leaf if that’s what you’re looking to duplicate —

and that’s also where you’ll want to scrape the side of your paint brush to add some of the dust sandra mentioned —

Thanks k8memphis. I’ll try to roll the edges up. I guess I’ll need to make the leaves separately with a little support under them to give them the right shape. 

louglou, when you start to thin out the edges of your leaves with your ball tool, they will naturally start to curl a little bit and give them a natural look.  Yes, you could put little pieces of foam or paper towel underneath the tips, while they dry, to create slight movement.  What you've already done is beautiful and your dad will love it!

If you add a bit of trex to the fondant before putting through the extruder it will stop the cracks 

I actually grease (with Crisco) the inside of my extruder before I put the fondant inside, which helps it come out more smoothly.  To soften fondant, I use Crisco (the US version of Trex) and glycerine.  The best thing I've found - I've not used it on fondant, just gum paste - is egg whites.  Kneading in a small amount of egg whites brings it back to a beautiful consistency.