I need Icing help

[MikeTheShite]

I'm baking my Dds first birthday cake. I'm making 2 giant cupcakes, and I'm thinking of doing white chocolate icing and raspberry filling.
Can I pick your brains on some aspects of it?
I need it to be able to travel slightly in the car so what icing would you use for the cupcake top and middle? I'm thinking a thick buttercream, a raspberry conserve and fresh raspberries in the middle.
I also want to make some flowers for the top, For decoration. The flowers are going to need to retain shape, so become solid if possible. What kind of icing do I need? Royal, regal or fondant?

TIA

If you can get to a cake decoration type shop or have time to get an Internet delivery, sugar paste would be your friend, I use it for flowers on wedding cakes and suchlike and it's fairly foolproof (which for me says a lot) Best of luck.

Wonderful thank you, I want to make Poppies? Would that work?

Most people cover the bottom half in fondant then pipe buttercream swirls on the top half, you need to buy fondant icing, just a small pack would probaly do for what you need, buy some daisy cutters to dot over and maybe some butterflies which are really easy to make and look effective in contrasting colours, spinkle abit of glitter to add abit of sparkle. There you have it, easy to do and they'll think its fab.

Thank you, I need to make poppies really it's hugely important that's why I want to make the cake rather than buy if im honest

Yes i mean to make the cake yourself but all i meant was if you haven't had any experience in making flowers ( and i'm not sure how to make poppies myself) i thought if you bought some simple cutters that look just as effective you wouldnt put your self under to much stress, yesterday i spent most of the day make roses and lily of the valley and i only managed 5, back to it today for a cake on sat.

If you want to make flowers that are solid and dry hard you need to buy squires flower paste, otherwise if you use ordinary fondant they will dry but sometimes they crumble as soon as you try and move them, especially as your putting them in buttercream, the moisture from that alone will soften them, i made cupcakes last fri for my daughters friends hen party, i didnt use my flower paste as i needed it for my roses, but by the time she took them everything had softened abit, they were ok but i could tell.

Take a look at my pic of the flowers i made and put on buttercream.

Thank you

I've never made poppies, but the important thing about fondant on butter cream, is, as nannycook say, they go soft.

The answer is simple make cake, ice. Let butter cream dry and firm slightly.

Flowers make at least a day ahead and leave on a plate to dry.

Assemble cake at the last minute and it will be fine.

I've done some research this morning and it has been suggested to use modelling paste?

Yes thats a good one to use, comes in small 250 gram pack about £ 2.50 ish, the flowers will still go abit soft tho as they're in buttercream, if you wasnt putting them on that they would be ok.

Theres a few different fondants to use depending what you want it for Mike, ordinary fondant for covering your cake, modelling for some flowers which i use alot, then theres Squires flowers paste, dries like rock, good for all flowers, what you dont want and believe me i've done it many times is to spend hrs many flowers only to find they'll break as soon as you touch them.

Buy some first and have a play about, see what you think youself really.

Sainsburys now sell their own brand modelling/flower paste much cheaper than squires and works just as well. Also easier to get hold of.

Really blue, is it as good also? Will it dry hard as squires? I'm going to put a pic of a spray i made this week for a cake tomorrow, please tell me what you think as i've never made one before.