Decorating buttercream covered birthday cake

[SilverSixpence]

Can I cover a cake in buttercream icing and then decorate with sugarpaste? I want to make a sponge cake and cover with buttercream or other soft icing rather than roll out icing. But I am planning to do a race track and cars on the top and not sure if it will all stay together properly. Any suggestions? It's quite a large cake (16" diameter round cake) so I don't think 1kg of roll out icing would do the trick and tend to make a mess of it anyway.

Hmm not sure. I have decorated using both but not how you describe. How I did it was to use buttercream onto the cooled cake. I let the first layer of buttercream set hard, then added another layer to smooth out any bumps/fill gaps etc. When this was tacky I put on roll out icing. You can buy ready-rolled icing too, so it's reasonably easy. The trick I learned was to put the rolled-out sugarpaste onto a non-stick mat/parchment paper, then stand the cake upside-down onto it, then using a larger mat/both hands carefully, turn the cake the right way up. It's easier to see if it's central if it's upside-down.

Thanks will try it your way I think. The cake is actually 12" so might get away with reag to roll but want blue icing so not sure how even I can get the colour. The rest of the cake is going well though, made Lightning and Finn out of sugar paste with my son and they look fab

You can buy powder to dust icing off and also edible spray glitter (It's called 'edible lustre'. I have a cake decorating/supply shop not too far from me but have also sourced things online.

You'd be able to buy ready to roll icing in any colour I think, but not ready-rolled.

I have used both. The ready to roll I checked with the cake shop how much I would need (it goes on weight and size of cake I think), and dusted the surface and the rolling pin with a mixture of cornflour and icing sugar. Once it was on the cake I brushed it off with clean paintbrush, and then attached my decorations using buttercream. It was surprisingly easy.
TBH it doesn't have to look perfect, it just has to look as though it was meant to look like that.

Keep me updated on how you get on - shall expect to see pictures on your profile! :)

go on any bake store site and usually there is a ready-reckoner to work out amount of regalice required. You will need a lot more than 1kg!

Butter cream needs to be 1:3 and you need to do 2-3 layers, 1st layer crumb coat - pop in freezer for a crust and build up layers. Buttercream can be flavoured or my fav is chocolate granche. Check your levels!!! use a cheap spirit level. Once a good crust you are ready for the sugarpaste and recommend you have someone to help and dont roll thin. Leave overnight and decorate. There are some fantastic you-tube instructions.

I suspect that if you put sugarpaste decorations on top of buttercream then the colour will 'leak', so if you do decide to do that then it would need to be at the last minute, I think.

I have an idea, Silver

Get the ready-rolled white icing and cover the cake as we have discussed. Then, you can colour some sugarpaste black (or buy it) and cut it into strips for the racetrack, and add all your other 'trimmings'. The blank areas are easy. Get some dessicated coconut, put in a box with a few drops of green food colouring. Shake. Tip/stick onto blank areas of cake for instant grass!
Or cover it with the ready-rolled white icing and spray the blue version of this on it.

Thanks everyone! I decided to get some white ready to roll icing (after covering cake with buttercream and filling with buttercream and jam). Got DH to knead the blue dye in for me as it was nearly 2kg of icing . Made the track with black premade icing from lakeland and cars from red and blue icing (pack of 4 colours from lakeland too). Cactus and grass from green icing from the same pack.

There's a photo here, DS loved it!! I used from youtube.

The main thing I was unhappy with, is that the cake was so big that when I tried to lift the icing on to the cake, it stretched and cracked a bit, which I fixed as best as i could but still didn't look perfect. Any tips on preventing this (other than making a smaller cake!)

It looks great, silver. The cars are brilliant.

As for lifting icing - rolling it carefully onto a rolling pin is the accepted method (and then unroll it across the cake) - but that does assume that you have a long enough rolling pin. The other trick I have used when desperate is to move it on a piece of baking parchment, lay it icing side down onto the cake, and then peel off the paper.

Excellent work! :)

I am feeling inspired on the cake-decorating front again now, but as the only upcoming events are a) a sort of wake/memorial do for my late father and b) my own birthday I can't really think of anything appropriate. Plus time is not really on my side for either.

Thank you! DS 'helped' with the cars, we really enjoyed it! last year I made him a fire engine cake but used horrible Betty Crocker frosting (never again), much preferred the look and taste of this year's cake.

Well, I think that is excellent! The refinement comes with experience and time. Yes, the stretching of the sugarpaste is a nightmare but can be due to the overworked paste, too thin, too much colouring, bad handling, sometimes you have to add trex to the paste. If you notice when you have a shop bought cake or prof made cake the icing is quite thick and the mistake I made was too thin. I have a special mat but still struggle to work with it as you are supposed to be able to lift the mat and place on then peel off but easier said!

A good homemade cake cant be beat, I like to concentrate on making a fab tasting sponge using my hens rich eggs, good butter and quality extracts. If using chocolate I also like to use the good stuff and rather a chocolate cake made with real chocolate against cocoa.

Everyone remembers a great tasting cake!

I use Cake Central forums too.