Anybody good with baking and cake decorating?

If you use fondant instead of marzipan, and make the decorations a few days before - leave them to air dry - and they will go hard. so no danger of any bendy hearts on the wedding day. don't you think it will be a bit much to do all by yourself though?! I'm already going to struggle with everything that needs to be done the day before our wedding! xx

My mum and sister will be on hand to help But i was hoping the fondant/marzipan could have been done like a week/2weeks in advance and then frozen lol.Oooops

You can do it up to about a week before, i would say. But don't freeze it!! Keep it at room temperature, or the fondant will 'sweat' and look all sticky.

Thank you

Ive been looking at youtube videos for ages now, have too many ideas in my head!

xx

As said earlier, make the hearts out of sugar paste. You can happily do them a week or two before - let them air dry for 24hrs and then store them in an airtight box until needed.
Bear in mind that people often keep sugar paste cake toppers for years after they've been on a cake, with little detrimental effects!

You can also make the cakes ahead & freeze (with no icing on), so all you have to do is decorate them, and this can happily be done the afternoon before the wedding and they'll be fine.
One thing to note here though - if you ice them with something that needs overnight refrigeration, don't put the sugar paste hearts on as they may go soft. Buttercream icing is fine to keep out for a good 24-48hrs without refrigerating though, it's sthings like cream cheese or meringue you have to be more careful with.

I agree with all of above. I'd use sugarpaste for hearts & do as much as you can in advance.

I had no room in our freezer & made 150 cupcakes the day before our wedding, amongst other things & it was such a busy time when it would have been nice to relax.

Sugar paste and fondant are the same thing but adtually You need specialist modelling icing that is easily bought online and in some supermarkets too. Sugar paste will still soften and wilt when in warm environments but modelling/Mexican/petal pastes have an added ingredient that is specifically designed so that it sets hard and shouldn't wilt. These can be made a couple of weeks in advance but will be brittle so be careful when handling or transporting!

Hi!

Like everyone has said, sugarpaste is the most easy, attractive solution ( tried this myself) and it does work BUT it doesn't taste of anything, just sugar. If you were able to make the hears out of white chocolate and add in teal flood paste/coloring, you could garentee no wilting, plus they would taste a whole lot better. To do those, you could use a mould and make them that way or free hand pipe them, but working with chocolate can be tricky.

I did my own cake and at first thought sugar paste was the answer, but friends of mine that own a chocolate producing business were adiment that sugar paste tasted awful (and now I have tested it) and it did, so switched to modeling chocolate which could also work, but ou would be better off with a mould if ou went that route.

http://www.google.ca/search?q=butterfly+centerpieces&oe=UTF-8&hl=en&client=safari&um=1&ie=UTF-8&tbm=isch&source=og&sa=N&tab=wi&ei=rntgUJrxOunL0QXkgoC4DA&biw=1024&bih=672&sei=sntgUJ_wM4eR0AWshIGQBQ#biv=i|12;d|me7BMZS8BjXLVM:

Those are 2 inches across, nice and flat, lots of room for name piping

My 2p worth

Thanks for everybody s suggestions! I suppose the taste is quite important! Perhaps it would be better to use chocolate as you suggested coolartist! I have at least 18 months for plenty of trial runs! xx

Totally bamboozled by the comment about sugar paste tasting bad. Almost all cakes handmade or shop bought will be covered with sugar paste!!! Including my own wedding cake earlier this year. I bake and decorate cakes regularly and sugar paste is staple and just sweet and sugary tasting.

I agree that sugarpaste or Mexican modelling paste do taste sweet but nice sweet & chocolate also nice so it's down to taste. Sugarpaste or modelling paste easier to use I would say. Plus also if you are getting married when it's hot (although you are Springtime?) chocolate is harder to work with as it melts & gets sticky.

You can make modelling paste by adding gum tragacanth to sugarpaste but prob easier to buy a packet - all available online (I use design-a-cake or Squires online but others available) or at cake decoarting shops. You can also get sugarpastes with a dash of flavouring added such as vanilla or marshmallow flavour (made by Karen Davies) which are quite nice in small quantities.

Have fun experimenting!!!

Hi, What a nice idea, you mentioned about havig a cake to share. Have you seen the big cupcake moulds you can get? I used one for my Aunty Birthday party >>>>>>> xx

Sugarpaste on its own left to air dry will be fine, do them quite thick, about 4-5mm you wont need to add gum trag or anything and you can do them weeks before, but if you are putting names on you need to practice writing in royal icing with a fine nozzle , this takes a bit of practice

Ohhh thanks Katie! I had seen them before but never occuredfor me to use them! : )

You can buy lots of nice edible decorations fairly cheaply. I made 200 gold glittery sugarpaste hearts for my brothers cupcakes and I almost had a breakdown after the 100th! Asda have a good selection of roses and hearts for £1 or 2.

If you're not great with piping icing, you could buy cupcake flags and write the guests names on those instead. They look very pretty