I need some advice on icing a cake. Any cake decorating bods about?

[ellifino]

I am very new to cake decorating. Recently started a course and loving it.

I have got all the gear and no idea!

It is my daughter's birthday and I want to make something like this, but I would love to put this little swimmer on the top.

I only know how to do piped icing so far. I have had a practice; traced it on to wax paper and tried on my practice board with a plan to pipe it in gel and transfer the outline that way, then pipe it on with colours.

It looked awful.

Is it too fiddly, or do I just need to practice?

What would you do?

I would really appreciate any advice.

I'd make it out of fondant. Use the image you have on waxed paper, colour small amounts of fondant, roll flat and cut out the bits. Then either stick the bits onto another rolled out piece of fondant as a backing (use water or vodka to stick it together) or put the pieces together on the cake. Hope that makes sense. I have a book of images like this that you make the way I've described and they turn out fine. The other advantage with fondant is you can just re-roll it if it doesn't look right. hth

Have you thought of painting it on?? - you can mix up icing sugar, water & drops of food colouring up to a gouache paint consistency - use something like a muffin tray to mix up various colours - & use on top of the iced cake as you would paint - use the wax paper design guide as above & mark out lines to follow - i've used this method lots of times & find it much easier on tricky images - good luck :)

I will have a practice at both those tomorrow. Thanks.