I was wondering if lily pads can be piped with royal icing - if there is a technique for that. Or what is your best way of making lily pads? Anyone got any directions or tutorial?

Also, I saw a picture of someone's cake in the gallery where they made cattails out of mmf and put them on toothpicks, but I need my cattail stems to be at least as long as a straw but not quite so stiff and straight looking. I want them to look like they might sway with the wind. I'll go for the straws as stems if none of you have any suggestions, but I really want to know how to support the weight of the cattail and still have the look of a curved stem. Any suggestions?

Oh, and as if that wasn't enough questions already...I've seen several of you on here that have made bass fish cakes that are 3-d and lifelike. Do you have a painting pattern for those? I will probably just end up doing a royal icing transfer and stand it up on top of the cake like it's jumping up out of the water, but I still need help with coloring and pattern on the bass.

I have two weeks to make this so every day counts from here on...it's for a good friend of mine who is turning 40 and he is a big bass tournament competitor. I want to give this to him as a gift. He and his wife are the greatest folks in the world!!

Thanks in advance for all your ideas. Tarina

I found this cake somewhere on the web. Sorry if it was from here and I failed to note the designer. Anyway, I saved it for the cattails. Looks like maybe they're stacks of marshmallows on bamboo skewers...frosted...and maybe rolled in brown sugar??? She didn't use lilly pads, but I'm thinking they could easily be piped using a standard rose tip and piping similar to a pansy, except doing a full rotation of the nail.

Bamboo skewers can be made pliable by soaking in boiling water for a little bit. You could bend them every which way prior to decorating them. I think they'd look super!

Crimsicle...thanks so much!! I like the look of those. I think I'm going to try to make those as they seem to be a lot lighter for the stems to hold up. I like the idea of the skewers too. Now all I got to do is figure out how to make the lily pads...surely they can't be that hard...I hope!!

thanks for the pic crimsicle! I've never seen cattails that large on a cake before! cute!