I always stack up cake dummies the size of the actual cake. I wrap each dummy with a piece of parchment cut to size so it goes all the way around in one wrap. I use flat head pins to hold them in place. Now you can have a trial run or practice the piping on the “cake” and scrape it off. I also use this method to make templates for the real cake. Draw with a pencil on the parchment the vine for the flowers, once you have it the way you would like it, you can easily wrap this piece of parchment gently around the real cake and trace over your lines gently with a tool to leave marks in your cake to pipe over. You don’t want to press hard just enough to give you a guide. I like to do this because I’m a planner and don’t like to fly by the seat of my pants LOL :) I like to be organised and know exactly how I will accomplish the cake properly.
Hope that helps. It is a beautiful cake and I’m certain you can pull it off. You could start the flowers very early as long as you store them in a dark place to stop the colours from fading.
Good Luck
Teri, Ontario, Canada http://www.TeriLovesCake.ca
