I'm 2 weeks away from the opening of my new bakery (finally, yea!!), so I need to make some dummy wedding cakes to decorate the store.

I've never made dummies (just real cakes), so I'd love some tips. For instance:

1) Do I just cover the styrofoam with royal icing? I've heard that you should cover it with plastic wrap to reuse it, but the icing slides off.

2) How do I keep the fondant or royal icing from cracking or yellowing from sunlight exposure (could you use spray food lacquer?)?

1) I put fondant straight on to the dummy - have plastic wrap on it would stop the fondant from sticking properly. The dummy can be washed off and re-used two or three times before it starts getting a bit too battered.

2) The laquer won't stop it fading, and they will in time - but that's not a bad thing as it means you're encouraged to keep your window displays fresh. The only shop in my region which sells wedding cakes etc. always has dummies in the window and I always think they look dusty and tired - so it would be better if they are refreshed regularly - give the customers something new to be impressed with!

Good luck!

Do you put some royal icing under the fondant to stick it, like buttercream on a real cake?

You can use a very thin smear of piping gel as glue, or you can also use thinned corn syrup and a pastry bush.

It just needs to be very slightly moist for the fondant to stick.

I used a pastry bursh to brush on water to get my fondant to stick. Water is cheap. It worked like a charm.

I've heard of people putting the Glad Press n' Seal wrap on the cake dummies to protect them!

I had the same question about the water evaporating.

Everyone's been talking about fondant dummies. Any tips for "buttercream" dummies?

I have seen two different types of styrofoam dummies. One is heavier and has lots of holes: use water on this one. A spray bottle works good, too. The other one is lighter like insulation foam that is made from pressed beads of foam. I use royal icing or piping gel on these. For "buttercream" dummies, always use royal icing. It looks just like buttercream for displays and it is strong. Real buttercream would have to be changed every couple of days because the colors and the icing get nasty.

I used corn syrup with just a touch of water - too much I found made my MMF start to melt a little on the dummy.

Good luck and post pics!!