Help! I have a client request for a tie-dye cake and I have never done this before. Can you please share with me how you do the tie-dye effect with buttertcream icing?

I do not have an airbrush machine and I do not have access to sprays so I will have to do this with multiple colors of buttercream icing. Any help is greatly appreciated!

Thanks,
Rhonda

If I were you, without access to all the fancy stuff, I would "crumb coat" the cake with a thin layer of butter cream and then use your colors and just pipe a tie-dye design onto the cake. I don't have access to all the "fancy" stuff either and I think that's how I would do it. Hope it helps!

sweetviolet-

can you be specific and tell me what you mean by "pipe the tie-dye effect". That's the problem- I don't know what to do or where to start.

Thanks!

I'm no pro but this is what i do..
I use a disposable piping bag, and i open it up and keep it open using a pringles container (so you put the pointy end of the bag inside the pringles container, and the open end of the bag hangs over the top of the container, that way your hands are free, and it's less mess.)
Then using gel colours, i use a toothpick and "pick up" one colour and make a straight vertical line down the piping bag - getting as close to the tip as possible.
Then i repeat the same process using multiple colours.
So now you have a piping bag that's full of lines of gel colour. I hope you're with me still.

Then you just put some white BC into the piping bag carefully, so you don't squish all the colours around to much, and start piping.. the effect will be very close to tie-dye.. it's easy and very cool.
Hope that made sense?

That definitely made sense; thanks!

I've had this tye dye cake in my favs for a long time, and she gives instructions in the description:
http://cakecentral.com/gallery/1372607

Thank you, thank you, thank you! This actually looks like the napkin they are using. Perfect- exactly what I needed.

Rhonda

hello! I don't know if you airbrush, but i found this to be the most effective way for me. I cover the cake in fondant and then I airbrush on the tye-dye colors as they would appear on a tye-dye shirt or tapestry. It's super easy and looks great. If you would like to see pictures check out these two links
http://cakecentral.com/gallery/2018569
http://cakecentral.com/gallery/2018573

i have done quite a few more cakes, but am always afraid of posting pictures lol I'm so self concious. But I am proud of my tye-dye cakes. I hope this helps. I've also seen marbled fondant, and icing used with the toothpick scraping method. email/message me if you'd like and I can explain more in detail Good luck- you can do it!!!

I love this web site... here is a link to her tie die cake and cup cake video
http://seriouscakes.com/wordpress/?page_id=374

The link that mandyloo posted is exactly what I was talking about......hope it helps or the marbleing fondant idea is also a great one, I've done that before on cupcakes and it worked really well! Good Luck!

Wow. Serious Baker has me wanting to do a tye die BC cake now.

OMG! I love that last tie-dye link. I so want to try that now.