So this lady and I discussed cakes on the phone a couple weeks ago, and she made it clear she did not like fondant. I told her I don't cover cakes in fondant because most of my customers do not like the taste. I do however, use it for decorations on top of my buttercream. She agreed this was ok, and I sent her a bunch of pictures for ideas. ( This cake is for her mother's 80th birthday.)

Her mother chooses this cake..which is adorable.

fficial&biw=1138&bih=532&tbm=isch&tbnid=g7b8TcOCu50G5M:&imgrefurl=http://www.perfect-wedding-day.com/butterfly-wedding-cake.html&docid=szjhoypdfBwF2M&w=240&h=360&ei=WkZpTu7xA46Etge63_yaDQ&zoom=1&iact=hc&vpx=770&vpy=151&dur=694&hovh=107&hovw=78&tx=97&ty=191&page=1&tbnh=107&tbnw=78&start=0&ndsp=20&ved=1t:429,r:7,s:0" target="_blank" class="postlink">http://www.google.com/imgres?q=pink+butterfly+cake&um=1&hl=en&client=firefox-a&sa=N&rls=org.mozilla:en-USfficial&biw=1138&bih=532&tbm=isch&tbnid=g7b8TcOCu50G5M:&imgrefurl=http://www.perfect-wedding-day.com/butterfly-wedding-cake.html&docid=szjhoypdfBwF2M&w=240&h=360&ei=WkZpTu7xA46Etge63_yaDQ&zoom=1&iact=hc&vpx=770&vpy=151&dur=694&hovh=107&hovw=78&tx=97&ty=191&page=1&tbnh=107&tbnw=78&start=0&ndsp=20&ved=1t:429,r:7,s:0

The lady apparently tells her mother that the butterflies are all made of "marzapan" and they don't want that. Now she wants me to make this cake with flowers made of "decorator icing". I could totally do buttercream flowers, but it would take me forever and a day to do it. Am I being a brat? I kind of just want to tell her that if she wants a cake that is totally decorated in buttercream she needs to pick a different cake or a different cake person. I feel like this is going to end up looking like crap.

Have you thought of making the decorations out of royal icing???? Add vanilla flavour to it and it tastes great. I can see butterflies made out of royal icing and let harden then attach to buttercream .

Yes, I thought about royal, but I'd just as soon eat fondant than rock hard royal icing flowers. I don't know!! Maybe I'm just in a bad mood. lol

If you're making flowers, you're going to need an awful lot of them to make that cake and the patience of Job to put them on. If it's going to be butterflies, I saw a cake like this a few months ago (actually saw it, so I can't give you a link to a photo, sorry) that was very much like this one, but the butterflies were made of gelatin. It was truly stunning.

Truthfully, the only way to get a similar look would be with something that will harden such as royal icing, fondant, gum paste, modeling chocolate. I would explain that to her. Also, she can always remove the decorations before serving.

If you are a "brat" then so am I. I will only do fondant wedding cakes - period. Cake decorating is only a hobby for me so I do have the luxury of telling that to brides.

Do you think it would be rude of me to say I wouldn't have sent her that picture as an idea, if I had known she was going to want it done in buttercream decorations?

I can't see what the cake looks like. The link takes me only to the blank Google Images page. Can you put the picture somewhere else where I could see it? thanks.

I would use the gelatin butterflies....... they are fun to make.... you can make them MONTHS ahead and they are easy to put on and take off the cake....... I dip the wings in rainbow dust, and they are just BEAUTIFUL !

http://cakecentral.com/gallery/1359553

I see you have another thread on this and I agree with Blakescakes. My problem with a customer showing me a fondant cake and wanting it in buttercream, is that it never looks the exact same. And then the customer gets upset, cause"Why doesn't it look like the picture"?! Well, cause it's buttercream. Now this is a cake that can be done in buttercream, but I am sorry the decorations will have to be done in fondant to achieve that proper look. And like Blakescakes said, it's up to you to educate your customer to let her know what can and can't be done to achieve the look of this cake.