I need to make some baby blocks to accent a cake, with letters of the baby's name on them. Curious, what is the best way to do this? I want to ice in buttercream, not fondant. I was thinking of making a square cake, and then cutting the blocks out. Is there a better way to do this... cupcakes maybe? Any advice or opinions would be greatly appreciated!!

Anyone??????????????? Help please!!

hello, I know you said that you don't want fondant, but this what I found maybe it can help you!!

http://cakecentral.com/cake-decorating-ftopic-124491-previous.html&sid=03bf2fa593f5558314d073e56dad5b92

http://inspiredbymichelleblog.com/2010/10/23/fondant-alphabet-name-blocks-for-decorating-cakes/

http://www.thesweetsbar.com/

http://www.wilton.com/technique/Baby-Blocks

http://www.thedreamdaycafe.com/2010/12/fondant-baby-blocks-tutorial.html#more

Did you look at the first link? How many and how big are the blocks?

Yes, I'm still undecided what technique I'm going to do. I'm just doing a 2 layer 8-in round, and 4 blocks at the bottom for the name, so they don't need to be very big at all... just to border the bottom of the cake. There is also going to be fondant bears at each side of the blocks, so I don't want them overly big.

If you don't want to make them out of fondant you could make something like petit-fours. Just cut small cubes of cake in the size you want and then coat them (or dip them) in ganache or melted chocolate or even smooth buttercream and then paint on the letters for the name.

You can thin it out with a little bit of vodka (it evaporates, so no worries there) or some clear vanilla extract. I have painted with gel colors straight out of the pot before, but it takes a LOT longer to dry.

I made some out of RKT. It was very easy to just cut the RKT into squares which were much more stable and easy to ice than a tiny square of cake would be. I did fondant them over the buttercream. But you wouldn't have to. Just ice then, maybe with a buttercream or a thick royal icing that would give you a really nice finish that you could pipe the letters and borders onto.

You can see mine on the monkey cake in my pics.

One other idea is making the block panels out of color flow and putting them together with royal icing bead border. they are light weight and you can decorate them anyway you like. If interested I can post a pic, just let me know.