Welcome to the Cake Decorators Q&A

Hi
Iy scooped some out, fruit cake seemed soft in the middle it was. I needed to check further so cut a small edge of the cake and it looked great. Would it be safe to dowel and then stack the rest of the cake on top now? Please help.

xx

Hi bellescakes

Sounds like your fruit cake is lovely and moist! The cake can be dowelled now because you’ve already iced it.
If the icing sets too much you may find it cracks when you push the dowels in. At the moment it should be fine, you won’t get any cracks so do it as soon as you can. Please follow Paul’s method for the dowelling, it is the best method by far I find outside of stacking systems, it creats a very secure structure. When you start dowelling, try and avoid pushing one directly into where you took the inspection slice from, (if you know vaguely where it is) don’t worry too much if you can’t remember because you’ll be placing in nine dowels so all the weak spots will be covered. Fruit cakes are pretty solid bases for stacking on and small slices meld back together quite well. You’ve got a good few days for it to settle down before you start stacking the other cakes on to it.
For the diamante wrap, trim the cake with a ribbon the same width as the wrap, stick it down with dots of royal icing. Again use dots of royal icing to stick the wrap onto the ribbon and adhere well. This will make it easier for removal at serving time. If you’ve cut the ribbon and the wrap to the same dimensions as the cake, there will no need for further trimming and the edges will stick down together neatly.
For the roses, make a mound of sugarpaste on a card as seen in this tutorial:
http://www.cakeflix.com/online-cake-decorating-courses/rose-wedding-cake/lesson-7-ribbon-and-posey
Fast forward the lesson until you see Paul making the posy mound. He will stick his posy onto the cake directly but you will be sticking your posy down onto a card. Stick the card and posy onto your dummy tier and start dressing it with the roses. If you don’t want to stick the card down, make the posy on a cake drum and have it as a removable topper and keepsake. Make the posy mound big enough to take all the roses. When you start pushing the wires into the posy mound just be aware that they sit snuggly and don’t move about. If the wires are slightly too long trim them off so the roses cuddle down into the paste nicely. All the roses will support one another as you begin to fill the posy up. It’s just like flower arranging.
If you decide to place the posy on a drum instead of a card, upturn the drum and space out four pieces of hard foam or styrofoam and stick to the underside. This will raise the drum up slightly. It will be like a mini table so you can pick it up more easily.
I’m sure the zingy lemon cake will be lovely. It’s a dense cake so it can be cut into finger slices very easily.
I hope all turns out well for you tonight. Have a lovely time.
If you need any more information or have further queries, you need only to post again. xx

EDIT

If you google ‘how to attach diamante wrap to cake’ you’ll see several videos tutorials. Your wrap may not be the same as these but it will give you a good visual idea. You’ll see one of them suggests using piping gel as glue.
When I’ve used piping gel as glue I found it wasn’t strong enough to cope with the weight of the wrap. It’s up to you, see what you feel more comfortable with. If you use royal icng, remove any excess that squishes out with a damp paint brush.

Hello bellscakes

I think miwl has given you all the advice that can be given, but I have tried these rainbow dust sequins.

Unfortunately I underestimated the amount of sequins I would need and ended up only covering the top of the tier rather than the whole cake (I used 3 tubes to cover top of 6″ round cake). They didn’t dissolve but I made the fondant (which had dried overnight) just very slightly damp, not wet. Piping gel applied thinly would probably work as well. The sequins are very clingy – keep your hands super dry when handling!

I understand your top tier is a dummy so you could use inedible silver sequins, just depends how much you mind using inedible stuff on a cake – as this is for your daughter, not a customer, I’m sure it will be fine, as long as it looks great!

Hope all goes well

Hi bellescakes

I think some of your question didn’t quite print. Is it your fruit cake for the wedding? Please could you clarify a little more. x

HI Madeitwithlove

Yes the cake in question is the base tier of my daughter’s wedding cake. It was when I came to marzipan it I noticed it seemed soft in the mid-base of the cake and that is when I took sample to test.. It was pretty soft but I carried on with the marzipaning. However I was concerned the rest of the cake might have been too soft to cut, hence cutting off about an inch to inch and a half from the cake to look at it, as you would when proceeding to make the first cut into a round cake. It looked really lovely, great texture and colour. I then plugged the slight hole in the base of the cake with marzipan where I’d removed a piece to test and then iced the cake the next day. My question is this, would it be safe to dowel the cake for stacking the deep 9inch cake and a further 7inch lemon cake followed by an 5inch iced dummy toped with a cake topper of roses. Also I have some diamante wrap. Also please can you tell me how to fix it around the cake where it joins? I will sterilize it first. I am not sure how to fix the roses into the mound of sugar paste on the cake card. I assume it needs to be quite a large ball of paste so that the wired roses have an anchor. My last attempt at this with the half sphere iced dummy was unsuccessful. Thanks so much your help would be very much appreciated. P.S. I made the zingy lemon cake to your scaled up measurements and it seems to have turned out very well. The birthday party is tonight so I will let you know how the cake tasted. As ever thanks so much. xx

HI miwl
Many thanks again for all you tips and help.

The death stars cake was a real success and the zingy lemon cake was lovely.

I bought a few tubes of the rainbow dust edible sequins to completely cover the top tier with but I have since read that they are likely to dissolve after a while when applied to a wet surface. Is this true? If so would ordinary silver sequins be ok to just glue on? I am really disappointed to think I may not be able to use these sequins now as I hadn’t realised the edible sequins could dissolve. On another note when should I lustre the cake please? Thanks very much. xx

Hi bellescakes

I’m so pleased all went well for your party. Now for the wedding!
I spoke to a Rainbow dust representative in their technical department this morning about the sequines. The chaps name is Chris. He says the sequines will not dissolve or melt if adhered with a little edible glue or piping gel. You call him up yourself if you like here http://www.rainbowdust.co.uk/contactus
The trick is not to over do the moisture. Do you have a dummy cake? in the interest of a positive answer I would suggest sacrificing one of the tubes by sticking the contents onto a prepared dummy and leaving it on overnight to see the results. Time is pressing on so you would ideally need to do it today.
I’m not sure which type of silver sequines you mean to use in place of the rainbow dust sequines so can’t say whether they would be ok.
Which lustre technique are you using? If you are painting the lustre as in the Faye Cahill wedding cake tutorial you must wait until the sugarpaste is dry. Painting is dependent on when you intend icing the cakes.
Here is Faye’s tutorial.
http://www.cakeflix.com/online-cake-decorating-courses/shimmering-lace-wedding-cake/lesson-7-painting-the-cake
I will be using Faye’s method for the wedding cake I’m doing and will wait to paint two days before the wedding.
Going from past experiences it might be worth taking some lustre with you in case it needs touching up.
I hope all your preparations are going well, just a few more days to go now so you must be tired but excited.

Thank you sooo much goldengoose25. Your help is greatly appreciated. xx

Hi madeitwithlove

Thanks very much. Yes wedding is on Saturday and I have had some setbacks along the way. The first chocolate cake I made on Monday slipped out of the oven and fell on the floor. I could have cried. I had to then make another one right away. Anyhow all the cakes appear to be really nice except I was unable to ice 2 of them very well so used dummies and they are fine. I tried the rainbow dust sequins and they look lovely and didn’t melt thankfully. I will need to add more though and I couldn’t get blanket coverage. I am still having problems trying to get the cake toper done. I want three roses grouped together to sti on the iced car, to go on the top tier but can’t seem to get this sorted. Anymore help would be great thanks. I am fast running out of time and have been so stressed but can see a glimmer of hope at the end of the tunnel. Tunnel thanks again. P.S. I plan to spray the cakes with my airbrush. xx

Hi bellscakes

I’m so sorry to hear of your mis-hap, I can fully identify with your pain, same happened to me when I lost a whole tier to a greedy kitchen floor!
We need to sort out your rose topper asap. Please can you say what the problem is. Was Paul’s tutorial not helpful? I understand you want the three roses to be together, is it the placement which is troublesome?
How about placement something like this: http://cakejournal.com/tutorials/how-to-make-gum-paste-roses/
If you in search in google images ‘how to make gumpaste roses cake topper’ you may see something you really like. Are you having a car topper to place the roses in or was that a typo?
Are you ok with the airbrush?
I can understand how exhausted you are. It would be good if you could have most of it done by tomorrow so you can have a rest and think of yourself on Friday. When are you setting up at the venue?

Thanks madeitwithlove
It was really bad luck. I have just watched Rose wedding cake tutorial and can follow cone sugar paste idea on card, in my case, but how would the cone 6 wired roses as there would not be enough paste to support them? Or should I stick wireless roses on with royal icing only? I can look at other link you sent me. Thanks. It’s getting so late now I am beginning to panic! xx

I thought it was three roses. Ok, so use the unwired roses as shown in the Rose wedding cake tutorial. Make the cone large enough to nuzzle the roses onto. Royal icing or ganache can be used to stick them down.
Don’t panic, take some deep breaths and stay focused. If you panic it won’t get done. Just make the cone and arrange the flowers on it. Once you’re happy with the look, stick them down and walk away. If you don’t walk away it will never be finished and you’ll be too tired to go to the wedding. xx

EDIT

If your top tier is a dummy the wired roses can be inserted directly into the dummy without the need of the sugarpaste cone. However if you need a little height the cone would give that.

Hi
Yes it six roses it’s just that I though Paul put in 6 to cover the mould of sugar paste. I will try as you suggested and take it from there. I lustred the cake with a pearl lustre which looks lovely but just noticed the chocolate/cake which is covered in chocolate ganash looks a slightly different colour from the others. I only put on one coat of icing. I feel I ought to have given it another coat. Is it too late now that it’s been lustred? I don’t really want to do anymore to the cake now other than the roses xx

It isn’t too late if you want to give it another coat of sugarpaste, use a bit of cool boiled water or a bit of piping gel to make it tacky so the new icing sticks down well. It’s up to you, if it looks ok then leave it be. All the tiers on the cake I’m doing won’t be the same colour, there will be a slight variation so you may well get away with it. See how you feel, get the roses sorted out first. Go to sleep xx

Hi madeitwithlovecakes
I didn’t re-ice the chocolate tier of the wedding in the end. anyhow I just wanted you to know the wedding cake turned out really well. I was absolutely delighted with the result, and it tasted gorgeous. All the cakes, fruit, chocolate and lemon were fantastic. The caterer didn’t cut the 5inch vanilla as there was so much cake already. The texture of each was fantastic and I had so many compliments from family and guests. I was just so relieved it was alright on the night as they say. The icing on the cake, forgive the pun, was that we enjoyed every minute of the day. It was absolutely awesome! Thanks so very much for all your help and advice and enduring patience in answering my countless questions. P.S. The cake topper turned out very well indeed too! Xx

Hello bellscakes

I am sooo pleased everything turned out well! I had every faith in you but I also know how stressful it can all get. If you have another wedding to do this will be a good experience under your belt to draw on.
You must have a well deserved rest now., you worked incredibly hard. Your daughter is a lucky girl to have such a wonderful mum. I expect everybody will be talking about your cakes for a long time to come. Congratulations, chink chink!! xx