Ready-to-roll icing...help!

[Birdly]

Am currently hatching a plot for dd's 3rd birthday cake, and am going to have a go at Annabel Karmel's parcel cake. I'm planning to use pre-coloured ready-to-roll icing on an 8" square cake but am worried I'll end up with messy corners on the base layer. All the tips I've seen elsewhere on using this type of icing feature round cakes, which I think might be slightly easier. Any clues as to how I can get smooth corners? Thanks!

1. Roll it out nice and thick (buy more than you think you'll need).

2. Do two layers (first can be marzipan or icing) If you practice on the first layer, the second will be better, plus two layers looks smoother. 3. Do it on a nice cool evening as icing is hard to work with if its hot. 4.The icing sort of stretches over the corners and you push it together on the flat sides (hard to explain) 5. You can buy special icing smoothers, but I just use my hands or a flat dish or something.

HTH! Its fun decorating cakes and a lovely thing to do for your kids if you enjoy it.

Just cut into the corners and push them together, then with wet fingers sort of smooth the edges together. It's really not that difficult honest.

Drape over the top, cut away the excess at the corners rather than trying to fold it all in, blend with wet finger or spatula.

oh also, roll it onto baking paper dusted with icing sugar, then lift up paper and flip over onto cake.

Thanks everyone - am feeling more Delia-like already!

Have you seen precoloured anywhere recently ? Waitrose don't seem to have it and I'm going to need pink !

I have seen some in a small independant cook shop, all colours.

LIZS - our local Tesco (a huge one!) does a multipack of various colours - red, black, yellow and green I think. Might be made by Supercook. Also,if you type 'ready to roll coloured icing' into Google, there are a couple of suppliers that offer pink icing in large quantities! There's mbsc.co.uk and the name Orchard rings a bell too. Hope this helps - happy icing!

the only parcel cake I've ever done was a Jane Asher one where you roll out the icing nto a big square and just wrap the cake up as though the icing were paper, doing the ends like a real present - picture here where the icing's been tarted up with painted-on food colouring.

No stretching required!

just to add to the questions - i've never used ready roll, but thought it might be best for dd's cake - a butterfly.
do you put the icing straight onto the cake? i've only ever bought a cake once, and that had a thin layer of butter icing between the cake & fondant icing - is this necessary?

butter icing not neccesary - cheapo jam (ie no bits) warmed till it's runnyish does very well - you just ned something to glue the icing (smooth and non-sticky) to the cake (also smooth and non-sticky)

No pink in Tesco - white , ivory or the multi primary coloured pack mentioned below. Looks like I may have to get the food dye out or perhaps Sainsbury ?

Food dye works(paste is better than liquid) -but remeber to wear latex gloves otherwise your hands will be bright pink for days. You can order it online from jane asher

thanks mrs badger. i have bought a huge packet of white icing (1k), strawberry jam, which i will warm & seive, some coloured jelly tubes & pink sugar balls for decoration. one smiley butterfly on the way for sunday.

is it sad that i'm looking forward to making this cake as the highlight of my week? i really enjoy baking & decorating!
i thought i'd use the strawberry jam, and a thin layer of butter cream to stick the middle of the butterfly together, so it isn't too dry.