Advice needed for colouring sugarpaste for board and celebration cake

[mrsemmawright]

Hello everyone

I'm hoping you might be able to help me! :)

I'm making an anniversary cake for my parents' ruby wedding. I plan to ice it with ruby coloured icing, and also want to ice the board. I'm a bit confused as to how best to approach this:

1. Should I colour the whole amount of icing, ice the board, then wait a day or two for it to harden before I ice the cake (keeping the cake icing in cling film and airtight container in the meantime). Will this mean that the cake icing is drier and more liable to craze/crack on the corners?

1. Should I colour enough icing for the board and cover that. Then a few days later, colour a second batch of fresh icing and try to match it for the cake. The icing would be fresher, but I'm worried I wouldn't be able to get an exact match on colour.

1. Should I colour the whole batch and do the cake and board on the same day? I'm worried that if I do this, I'm more likely to damage the board icing when I trim the excess from the cake.

Please help! I'm so confused!

Many thanks in advance
Emma

Hi I would probably go for option one if I have the time and make sure the icing is well protected from the air and it should be fine. If any bits dry out cut them off before kneading learnt the hard way but knowing me am always running late I would look at three but then the icing on the board doesn't dry out properly. However do not trim the cake on the iced board. Trim it on a separate board then carefully slide it on to the iced board.

Do not do two! It will not work however you could always cover the board with a plain icing and then have the ruby cake stand out more?

Right better go on and get on with the cake I should be doing rather then being on MN please let the baby nap soon!

Ooh and post a picture! Love piccies of cakes!

Option 1. Wrap the icing well and it will be absolutely fine - a few days is nothing for icing.

Alternatively go for 2 distinctly and deliberately different shades. Don't try and get it to match it you colour it separately - it just won't.

Thanks ladies, that's so helpful. I'd tried explaining it to my husband to help me work out which option to go for, but that was pretty hopeless!

I'll do it in a couple of weeks and will try to remember to post a picture!

Thanks again.

I do mine the same day. Cover the board and set aside. Then I cover the cake on a turntable thingy and transfer to the board. No cutting on the board.

As an aside I always buy the red icing. I hate colouring icing red.

Thanks everyone, after dithering about this for weeks, I now have a plan of action! I'm going to colour all the icing, the nice board, wait and do cake, trimming and finishing before putting it onto the board.

Good stuff., ;)

I'd probably do option 3 but not put the cake on the board until the board had dried out - I always dry my boards out in the oven with just the fan on for an hour.

You also have option 4 - cover the cake and board together. doesn't give you as sharp an edge between them, but depends on your decoration whether that's a problem or not.

Try sugarflair christmas red for colouring paste, it's the only one that gives me a nice bright red rather than pink!