Hi Y'all,

I'm doing a wedding cake and I need to do silver scrollwork on the sides of the cake. I'm trying to figure out the best way to do this and was thinking of doing a light grey buttercream and then painting on lustre dust....

Should I paint the lustre dust on dry or let the buttercream harden and paint the lustre dust on mixed with alcohol?

OR!!! Should I mix the lustre dust right into the buttercream?

Thanks for any help!!!

I didn't realize you could paint buttercream?? I'm interested to see what others say...

I've only used luster dust on fondant and royal icing....

My experience has been that luster dust doesn't really work with buttercream. The fat in the buttercream makes the luster dust lose its luster.

I once tried to paint buttercream scroll work with luster dust mixed with alcohol with very poor results. I learned that you have to use royal icing, let it harden, then paint it.

I paint buttercream piping all the time with luster dust/everclear. I use a crusting buttercream and allow the buttercream to crust well before painting it using a soft paint brust. Many of the cakes in my couture cake album show painted buttercream piping.
http://community.webshots.com/user/sewsweet2

SewSweet....HOLY COW!!! How have I never seen your work??? AMAZING! Your work is absolutely stunning!!

When I need to paint luster dust on buttercream, I mix the luster dust with vegetable oil. It goes on smoothly and does not pull the buttercream.

I was watchig Fabulous cake the other night and a bakery was making a large globe cake and it looked like she was piping the continents with silver and copper BC and then pulling it away with a wide brush..How would one achieve silver or gold BC to pipe...Just tons of lustre dust???

Why not try and use piping jell with the luster mixed in really well. It's half the work because you only have to pipe it and no painting and it's all the shine you want depending on what luster you use.


Kiddie that was just colored BC not metallic, but it was really great.

Some of the lusters remain "luster-ful" better than others. My silver and 24K gold are the best. Golden bronze, while a gorgeous color, was not as metallic looking as I would have liked.

That is true. I like Nu-silver for an edible silver luster dust and Super Gold for an edible luster dust. Some times Aztec Gold depending on what shade is desired.

If it's for very small parts that most likely wont be eaten you can not beat the Silver and Gold Highlighter dusts mixed with vodka and painted on for a perfect chrome like finish of real gold and silver.