How would you fix biscuit crumbs on the top of a cake?

[MaureenMLove]

There's a conundrum for you on a Wednesday morning!

So, I'm in the process of making a cake in the shape of a flower pot. I've been up hours making all the flowers to put on it and I'm almost ready, but I had a brain wave of putting crushed Oreos on top for soil.

So do you think it'll be more successful to sprinkle in any gaps after the flowers are on or before, covering the whole of the top of the flower pot? How would I secure them I wonder? And will the flowers secure well on top of biscuit crumbs?

I may have answered my own question! Think after, in between the flowers might be better. There's a lip between cake and fondant covering, so it won't fall off.

Anyway, unless anyone else has inspiration, thanks for listening!

I think I'd put some sort of glue down (glace icing? Melted chocolate? Buttercream? Ganache?) Quickly secure flowers (or is this a fiddly job) then sprinkle with crushed biscuits.
Enjoy the cake. Any chance of a picture? Sounds fabulous.

You could paint the top of the cake with a sticky glaze (dissolve some jam in a bit of hot water). Sprinkle the crumbs on before it dries.

I would go the other way - think you might struggle to get an even layer if you do it after the flowers, and risk getting crumbs on the flowers. . So I would put a layer of buttercream, then "soil", then scoop up a tiny amount of crumb where I wanted to put the flowers, then glue the flowers down with more buttercream.
Good luck with it!

soil first, press it onto something...as pp has suggested. If it's just sitting there on top of fondant it''ll fall everywhere when people cut/eat the cake

then the flowers...if you do the flowers first and then the soil it will get in the petals and look horrid

Thanks all. OK, I'll go for the biscuit first. I certainly will take a picture. It'll be 5'ish by the time I've finished I think. Got another football cake to do too. Not to mention cleaning the house and packing for a week away tomorrow!

Never let it be said I sit idle on my school holidays! . Dunno why I'm cleaning as well tbh. DD (21) will be at home whilst we're away and she lives like a pig!

Back to the cakes. DD bought me some rose cutters for Mothers Day. They are so bloody easy, I urge you to buy! I'll try and find a YouTube link.

Here you go. Been a god send for this particular cake!

So, the answer is crumb first, then attached the roses on cocktail sticks, thus being able to create height in places. I'm very pleased with it and want to show the world!

Stunning! Well done.
Definitely right to crumb then flowers. I'd got an image of flowers on long stalks - not sure how you'd have done that in cake or fondant tho. Perhaps that's why my cakes never look that good!

I usually use apricot jam (no lumps). M & S even sell the stuff in a squirty pouch for the very purpose (at a silly price).

Did you make that cake? Bloody brilliant.

Oh it looks great! That's a clever gadget on the video

Wow! That is utterly, utterly fabulous - well done, you should be rightly proud of yourself.

Gorgeous!

Yes, I did make it myself and it just goes to show, if you have the right tools, you can do anything. Honestly, that rose cutter is dead easy. The leaves are from a cutter too and I lay them on scrunched up tin foil, to give them some depth and shape, whilst they dry out a bit.

I also bought a set of icing tools. Just tools that have flat bits on the end or ball shapes or points etc. So bloody useful. Morrisons has a very extensive baking section now. (I really should have had all of these by now, I've been making cakes for people for bloody years and I've made hundreds!)

I just simply made and covered a cake and stuck on all the parts. I shall be doing that again in various reincarnations!