Advice/tips for grooms cake

Hi Alecia! Sometimes less is more! I have over complicated cakes and they have turned out not sure great, but that’s cause I too wanted them to be special. This may or may not help but maybe get a edible image of him and the bride or even just him? Did he take any pictures while hiking or anything personal like that, that could be turned into a edible image. If you did that you take care of photography and hiking with minimal work.

Everything else you mentioned sounded great. If you want to make a sculpted camera out of rice Krispy treats (RKT) you can help cover the RKT with Royal icing to fill in the holes and help the piece be smoother and the icing helps keep the fondant sticking to the RKT. I also personally like to cover it with fondant with a little bit of royal underneath the icing, than smooth the fondant using a fondant smoother into the RKT. That way the fondant fills in all the holes and bumps. Let it dry for at least a day and cover with another piece of fondant, let it dry for another day that way you dont dent or smudge the fondant when detailing. If you do the double layer of fondant do remember to cut your RKT a little smaller to make up for the thickness if the fondant. I hope that helped some.

-- Jessica, Kodiak Alaska http://www.facebook.com/ConceptualConfections

Using edible images is a great idea! Thank you so much for your help!!

Hi, Alecia. I too was wondering about edible images. I like your shamrock idea but just to throw something completely different out there, what about a cake that looks like a mountain (An Irish mountain, of course! lol). You could have framed edible images of his bands placed around on the mountain and then him w/ a camera around his neck and his hiking boots on sitting on top of the mountain. You could put the bride up there too if you wanted. Just an idea that popped into my head when I read your post.

Wow SarahBeth! That’s a great idea, but since I’m a beginner, I think all the sculpting involved would stress me out!! :) I WISH I could do something like that though!! Maybe for his birthday cake in a year or two, when I’m more confident! :) (By the way, I LOVE your name! My daughter’s name is Sarah; so is my sister’s!)

If I was doing this cake, I would do the camera as either the cake itself, or for more cake…put the camera on a larger cake, and then add “pictures”, possibly with edible images, of all the things he loved.

-- Stacy, Battle Creek Michigan - www.bumbleberries.net | facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pages/bumbleberries/160218613994258

Bumbleberries, what a great idea! I don’t know if I could manage a detailed camera though. I haven’t done anything with fondant yet. But I’ll never know until I try! I already have a camera sculpted out of rice krispies that I could practice on.

Here’s another question: if I do the edible photos, will I have to use white buttercream? If I put the images on a fondant backing, would the green frosting (from the shamrock cake), bleed into the image?

You could roll out a piece of fondant or gumpaste to the size of the picture, Let it dry and attach the image to the sugar with royal icing or piping gel. I would not put it on colored icing it will change the way the picture looked but if you put that piece of fondant/gumpaste behind the picture than it would be fine on the shamrock. Keep your images out of direct light and careful moving them around alot, they can fade and crack or even curl up so it’s not something I would add to the cake till the day of. Do a little research on it just to be safe. I have used them in grocery store bakeries but it’s been awhile. ALso start checking where you can order them cause last time I did one I had to order it online, it didn’t take long but alot of grocery stores wont print images for you. Hope that helps!

-- Jessica, Kodiak Alaska http://www.facebook.com/ConceptualConfections

How about using cookie cutters to cut out the hiking boots, camera, wedding date, etc…? You can pipe the details on with royal icing or buttercream. If you are not comfortable with piping, you can draw on the details with edible markers…you can find them at your local Michaels or ACMoore.

-- Loren, http://www.thebakingsheet.blogspot.com, https://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Baking-Sheet/210664827961

Thanks for your help ladies! I am really feeling much more confident about this cake now!! I’m planning on making the shamrocks out of modeling chocolate or fondant-cut out with a cookie cutter, and writing the names of his favorite bands with edible marker, and brushing luster dust for color. I’m going to buy my own printer and edible ink/paper and print out the edible images, and probably make a square tiered cake and put the photos on the sides, alternating with the shamrocks.

Sounds good, Alecia! I like Loren’s idea of cutting out boots and a camera too.

Let us know how it turns out!