Question About Icing Dummy Cakes In Buttercream
Decorating By Little1 Updated 7 May 2014 , 1:30am by enga
I've only covered dummy cakes in fondant and royal icing. But I've been doing some reading on here about covering them in buttercream and in plaster. My question is about the buttercream. I keep reading to use all shortening, no butter and to omit the vanilla. Makes perfect sense. But do you use milk???? I want to keep these as displays. Can you really keep a dummy cake iced in buttercream with milk in it for years?? That just doesn't seem right to me.
TIA!
I recently did a cake show, and I had a buttercream dummy, several royal, and lots of fondant covered cakes. The fondan and royal fared much better than the buttercream. I used powdered sugar, water and shortening. Maybe some meringue powder would help it harden? It was pretty crumbly. And chunks fell off...
Really? Could it be the water that it made it do that? IndyDebbie has posted that her buttercream dummies dry as hard as a rock and last for years.
I'm so confused.
I don't get it either. But i seriously doubt that milk will help. I would try the powdered egg white first. There was hardly any room to get everything back in the car and home in one piece, so I sacrificed it. I tossed in an upside down plateau that had an extension cord in it and and let it fall apart. I bet the egg white would harden nicely. I would put a couple tablespoons per lb.
I make a shortening based recipe where I add creamer and water. I make this recipe for cakes that will be in hotter climates. Well, recently I made some frosting and I left one in a piping bag in a hidden corner in my kitchen. Not sure how I left one behind. A few days ago as I was cleaning I found the bag of frosting. It had not changed at all. It looked exactly as it did the first day. It is kinda weird.
But point is, it should hold up well on your styrofoam cake. I wouldn't use milk though.
so I sacrificed it. I tossed in an upside down plateau that had an extension cord in it and and let it fall apart. .
That breaks my heart a little bit.
Ibeeflower- that coffee creamer trick that Sharon does might be just what I need. Thanks!
so I sacrificed it. I tossed in an upside down plateau that had an extension cord in it and and let it fall apart. .
That breaks my heart a little bit.
Ibeeflower- that coffee creamer trick that Sharon does might be just what I need. Thanks!
Its okay, i will redo it next year, or in january, since i am planning on doing lots of shows. It was my husband's favorite, but it just kept having bits fall off, and it was the only buttercream. I just wanted to go home! We didn't sleep the night before, and I was pooped... I had to keep slapping myself to stay awake while driving. Another note, if you stick flowers on with white chocolate, make sure to take them out of your hot car, it they will all fall off 
My cake dummy is styrofoam, the the edges are kind of rough. Do you put something over the dummy before you put the BC on it? Thanks,
Nnacy
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My cake dummy is styrofoam, the the edges are kind of rough. Do you put something over the dummy before you put the BC on it? Thanks,
Nnacy
nancylee61, I take a fondant smoother and go over all the edges with it and then ice with the BC. For fondant I use a little shortening under it.
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nancylee61, I take a fondant smoother and go over all the edges with it and then ice with the BC. For fondant I use a little shortening under it.
I am about to use a Styrofoam cake dummy for the first time, and I had also wondered about covering the Styrofoam first. I do not plan to keep this dummy layer decorated and on display. Instead, I plan to remove the icing after so that I can re-use the dummy another time with another color of icing. I have heard of people covering them with plastic wrap first (like Saran Wrap), but am concerned as to how well the buttercream will stay on the plastic wrap. I also need to be able to poke a few flower stem holders into it once the icing is smooth... Any advice from anyone who has done this???
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