hi all....im going to do some research within the next couple days...but any input would be nice!
i am going to try to duplicate this cake....she wants square tiers (which i havent done) to feed 125... with dark/blood red roses. my questions:
1. she doesnt care (yet) fondant or buttercream....which is easier when covering a square cake? (altho im sure neither is easy for a first time....)
2. im thinkin of buying premade roses,....what sizes should i be looking for do you think? around 2inch and go down from there?
and 3....if i go buttercream...do i just do the scroll work in buttercream also? will the blk bleed into white? and this is hand piped...no stencil right? again something i havent done....

overall..im worried this will be more stressful than its worth...as techniques i havent done yet...but also i think we all have to start somewhere when trying something new...so i want to give it a try..but want to rasearch as much as i can!

thank you for all your help!

edited...im sorry...its to feed 150-175 people...eek that would also be the largest cake ive done!

Well you can do the royal icing roses a full month ahead of time. So maybe you can devote an evening to making good roses. Then you let them dry and store them in a cardboard box.

Buy a tube of black icing and practise the scrolls on an upside-down cake pan, also a month or more ahead of time. Use up the full tube doingf a panful at a time (washing it off after each session).

You might even consider just using the black tube icing for the real cake, MUCH easier than trying to colour it yourself.

You need to spend some time on the dowels for this cake also. Learn to cut them square and all exactly the same length for each tier. Then you have to make sure you locate them UNDER the covering cake by about 1" to make sure they do their job properly.