I am thinking of entering a cake in the county fair. I have thought about using a cake dummy but I am not sure if buttercream can be used on a cake dummy. I haven't worked with fondant much, so I am more comfortable with buttercream.
Can anyone tell me if you can use buttercream on a cake dummy?

absolutely. It does take some extra planning to decorate a dummy with buttercream because they tend to slide around since they are not heavy.

I put double sided tape to hold them or a piece of non-skid liner

I'm not sure what it's called, but there is a special kind of non-edible icing that you can use on cake dummies. With the summer heat & humidity, I would look into it if you are worried about BC or RI holding up.

I'll try and track down the name of that stuff & get back to you.

Found it!! It's called Perma Ice. Here's a link:

http://www.countrykitchensa.com/catalog/product.aspx?T=1&productId=1717

Good Luck!

Thank you all for your help!

I've never enterd a contest but can you use cake dummies for competitions like ICES, etc.? Just asking! That seems like a lot of cake to throwing away.

wow, that stuff sounds fun. Especially to decorate with RI and then just wash off and start over the decorating. Saves time.

fbaaheth - check the rules of the cake show or competition - they should state if dummies can be used. My fair allows dummies, except for the carved category. They even allow decorating ON THE PAN for the 3D cakes. Dummies are allowed for ICES too, as long as it can reasonably be duplicated in real cake.