I attempted my first color flow decorations for my daughter's 2 nd birthday cake this past weekend - the party is on Sunday 12-17 so does the color flow really take 7 days to cure I made zoe, elmo and big bird on sunday 12-10 but I made cookie today... if it really takes that long I am going to be cutting it close.. see attached pictures for size and look of the decorations. Does anyone have any suggestions for using these.. do they really break down over time when using on buttercream?

They will breakdown over a period of a couple of days to a week but certainly not a day before.I use colorflow pieces all the time on BC icing and it has never broken down.You could make a tiered cake and put them on the sides of the cake all around..On top of cupcakes....They look Fantastic!!!


Laurel

These look really good.

How does one make 'colour flow' without the colour flow powder? Is it just like royal icing but just thinned out?

how did you keep your black from bleeding? when i made color flow peices in germany. i would let them set a day or two between colors and the black would bleed on me every time. i want to try it again.

My course 2 book says
"Let decorations air dry thoroughly at least 48 hours (allow extra drying time in humid conditions)."

When I made color flow pieces for the sides of my dump truck I let them dry for 3-4 days and it wasn't enough time. When I went to lift them from the wax paper they all broke in pieces. My sides were bigger than your faces, so maybe you will have better luck than me.

ya i had that problem too on one of the cakes i made in germany. my sgt i had in germany taught me to do it on saramrap and just cut around the color flow peice and leave it on the peice for 2 reasons 1 because of less chance of braking and the other was to give longer time befor it started to break down from the buttercream icing. the pic i attacted is one of the color flow piece i did. i wish i would have gotten pics of the other ones i did and help do.

I'd give them a good 3-4 days to dry completely. I dont see them really breaking down on a bc cake unless maybe they were there for days and days. I havent really made a lot, but on my spartan cake I did notice some "grease" spots sort of soaking through the colorflow. It didnt get soft or break down or anything, it just got a little spotty.

Thanks to everyone who has responded to my post. I have already attempted to take zoe off of the waxed paper to allow air to get underneath... she was dry..but she did break into pieces... both of them actually.. maybe she wasn't as dry as I thought... or maybe the color flow batch wasn't right when I did her... because both elmos came off successfully and so did one of the big birds... the other bit the dust. I will be trying another batch again today for zoe... and i will try the method of leaving the wax paper on and just cutting around it.... that sounds like a great idea.. thanks for the tip. Regarding how to keep from bleeding.. i did get a little bleed effect from the black going into the lighter colors like the white eyes and the yellow on big bird. Regarding using some other product other than color flow... I really don't know what else you could use since this was my first time doing this project. Thanks again to all you left your comments.

hope that tip helps. can't wait to see your cake when you finish it.

I have done quite a few color flows, but never used the color flow mix. I use royal icing that has been thinned down just enough to flow into all of the little spaces. I have never had any problems with those colors bleeding. I use plastic wrap instead of wax paper and mine are usually dry enough to pull off without breaking in 24 hours. The way I do it is, I put a cake board on top of the color flow and flip it over, then I am able to peel the plastic wrap from the back. This works great for me.

Wanted to say thanks again to all those who replied... wanted to give an update - the second round of color flow turned out much better using the saran wrap tip.. and I think that the reaction with the waxed paper has something to do with the colors running... didn't get any of that with the saran wrap.. and I let the outline parts dry even less time than before.. I wanted to post a picture of the completed cake..