Oh, I know how easy that is! I was going to another dummy on Monday, but have been cleaning/organizing my garage all week instead. LOL!
I've been making dummies like a madman, I'm just over a week away from my first wedding show as a cake person. Feeling the need to not only show that I can do it, but also get ideas out there, ya know?
Yesterday, I did my first topsy turvy cake. Purple, Turquoise, Lime Green, bright orange, and hot pink. I don't know what to call it, aside from my "mad hatter acid trip cake". LOL! Loads of fun.. hoping it's not too "out there" for my area / the show.
I've been making dummies like a madman, I'm just over a week away from my first wedding show as a cake person. Feeling the need to not only show that I can do it, but also get ideas out there, ya know?
Yesterday, I did my first topsy turvy cake. Purple, Turquoise, Lime Green, bright orange, and hot pink. I don't know what to call it, aside from my "mad hatter acid trip cake". LOL! Loads of fun.. hoping it's not too "out there" for my area / the show.
There's a new name for a colorful cake....lmao.
OK! Finally got back to this dummy!
Here's where I'm at right now. Ran out of RI, and I don't have a big enough dummy for the bottom layer *, so I have to wait till hubby gets back from work (I live an hour away from the cake place, am making him pick up more dummies on the way home) before I can get going on it more.
Ugh, it sent before I could finish. Anyway, ya... gonna work on it more later, hope to finish tomorrow so I have a good pic in my portfolio for Sunday.
As for the *.. I'm sort of dumb. I BOUGHT a 14" for the bottom round.. and then accidently covered THAT instead of a 12" when I was doing my marathon of dummy making this weekend. Grabbed it when I did my snowflakes cake, which was supposed to be temporary.. DH and I TOTALLY fell in love with that one and decided it would be a "permanent" dummy... so now I need a new 14". Sigh. LOL. I've never gone through so much styrofoam in my life!
Looks really good so far! Great job. 
Can't wait to see the final pics.
Whew! Ya know, I only used RI for the first time on Saturday, and I'm LOVING it... but holy crap, my wrist is KILLING me! Is this normal?
Here's the update so far. Got the bad news that the cake store isn't open on Mondays, so no 14" bottom round.. EEK. Gonna end up having to go tomorrow and do this as a last minute thing.
Whole lot of white on there.. can't wait to see it after I paint it!
You can thin down your RI a bit if it is hurting your wrist. If it is already as thin as it can go and still work for you, just use a lot less in the bag and refill more often. But yes, all in all, RI does a lot bigger number on the wrist than BC. Great looking cake!
Wow! That's looking awesome! Hurry up and finish it - I'm dying to see! 
Thats a great cake so far. You should get some nice notice with the colors and shape. I did a cake show once and I stood back and noticed, the people who got a lot of attention had great topsy turveys and other shaped cakes on display. The only thing is, be prepared to answer the question "How much will this cake cost me?" LOL O lord... I know what you REALLY want to answer is "$5,000" after cutting through all that styrofoam
Let us know how your cake show goes, ok?
Loriana (Lisa) 
I'm thinking I'd do it for $10/slice?
It'll be about 2 hours on the styrofoam (a bit less so far, accounting for the 14" I still have to do today).. and between making the fondant and the RI decorating so far, I've spent about another 4 hours. Am guessing another hour in RI, and then probably several for the painting.. and maybe another hour for the top. I'm not doing the stupid chalice thing, I'm doing a gold tiara.
Oh my GOD. The painting is taking forever, and it's SO fussy!!! I change my mind - $12-15 / slice. Good lord.
I think it would have made more sense to pipe out the stuff that was to be gold first, paint it, THEN pipe the white stuff and paint that. I'm going to start losing hair over this, LOL
I've never worked with a dummy but I have heard someone uses RKT instead. . . . ? Might be worth a shot if you're in a bind and maybe ingredients are more available than the cake store so far away
I have used it for a box lid and just use RI to 'spackle' in the cracks and then cover in fondant, seems to hold it's shape well. . . . Just a thought
can't wait to see the finished cake!
LOL, awesome!
I ended up making the drive to the store yesterday. I'm working on the cake in little bits, because the painting is driving me INSANE. I've taken some pretty long "mental health breaks" from it so far.
If I ever get an order for this kinda thing, I'll be figuring a way to make the icing colored/metallic before piping it on. That sounds much more sane.
My painting is a sloppy mess. I'm hoping it's not too obvious at the show - it's not all THAT obvious from a yard or two away.
FlowerGirlMN- I just wanted to thank you for posting your process here! It's so neat to see the cake at different stages, and to hear how you did it, how long it took, and what you would do differently.
Can't wait to see the final product!
Ya know, I'm gonna go take a pic of what it looks like now, I'll post it in 5 mins or so.
Please don't laugh too hard! A painter, I'm not!!
That is going to be so awesome when it's finished! It's a lot of work now, but just knowing you can pull it off is going to make you feel just as talented as MB herself! 
Is it harder doing all that painting with the tiers already assembled?
I pretty much decorated each of my tiers seperately so I wouldn't have to strain my arm reaching up to paint each tier. I also took the lazy route and colored my RI gold (looked like dark mustard! LOL!) for piping anything to be gold. That way if I missed anything with the luster it would be less noticable (and I wouldn't have to make sure I got into all the cracks/crevices).
I'm a slacker - so if there's a shortcut, I'm gonna find it. LOL!
Wow! It already looks so incredible! I just can't wait to see the finished product!
What did you use to color it gold?
I was initially planning to do it all in MMF / Gumpaste (YIKES!!), and the RI was MY lazy way out!
I had considered coloring the RI, but I'm just getting used to using it and didn't want to screw it up with such a short deadline. I DEFINITELY think that I'll be pre-coloring things if I ever do this again!
I just used used gold americolor gel... it didn't look shiny, but it made the spots I missed with the luster dust less obvious. I also thinned out the luster much more for a first coat (because it spread and covered more area), and used a thicker "paste" the second time. I didn't have to be so precise doing it that way.
Today's update. I didn't have a lot of time to work on it today - I had a tasting with a catering/event hall.
(Which, btw, went amazingly well! Made a little dark chocolate/chambord bribe cake with chocolate mmf, nicely decorated little bribe cake.. she LOVED my portfolio and said - get this - "Ohh.. this would be great for the brides looking for "a cut above"")
Yes! I think my startup is going well.. I'm so glad I'm not going to be looked at as a "budget choice" or something. Liking the sound of "a cut above"!!
Your cake is looking great! I was surprised to see how small MB's cakes are. They look huge, but I saw her on TV and they are pretty small. One was like a 2", 4", 6", 8". In the pictures they look huge, good camera work I guess.
Flowergirl - it is so fun watching your progress on the cake. It is beautiful!
Ditto! It is fun watching your progress. The next picture I expect to see is this exact cake with a knife halfway through it, sitting ona white tablecloth with the bride and groom eating their first bite.
Oh... and you in the background with a little smile on your face and a hand on your pocket... with $10000 sticking out from the top!
My LAST "progress pic"
Woo!! Coming down the home stretch now. This is *ALMOST* done, the next photo you see of this (%$^%$#$#!!!!) Cake, it'll be done, with topper, and in a professional photo!
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