Ruffles and Lace Wedding

My area of the country follows trends, but about two years behind New York.  Currently we have a lot of brides wanting two main colors, but both neutrals.  Shades of ivory with white and shades of grey with cream both seem to be very trendy. Khaki, tan, ivory and champagne are the hardest colors to make in my opinion.  I've had art class, but I see.med to have forgotten that lesson.  if you just use the ivory color, it's too yellow.  Adding a little brown coloring in you icing makes a weird color, but it's not tan.  If you are short on time, know this:  GOLDEN YELLOW + PURPLE = TAN.  You can add some pink for more champagne of green for more of a khaki, but starting out with a nice tan instead of  a weird yellow is key.  I could give you many great articles on coloring, but here is one great one with links to other great ones.  Don't get mad at me if I send you down a wormhole of learning!

This is talking about royal icing, but we all know it's just the same to make fondant.  If you are coloring real butter-buttercream, take in to account that it is already pale yellow.  What I like to do is make a "color concentrate".  In this instance, I made a cup of a really dark khaki.  Then you can make a formula that is more controllable like "1 TBL color concentrate mixed with 1 LB buttercream".  This is handy because we often guess how much colored icing we need for a cake.  If we make too much, we are stuck with a color we may not need again for a long time (mix it into black!) or we run short and can't match the original shade.  You can also freeze leftover concentrate for later uses or just throw it away and you have only wasted a little.

I have been talking about color because there is not much exciting to say about this cake.  Sorry "my bride" if you are reading this but in the cake world this was not new or exciting.  It's classy and pretty just not AWESOME.  I made this cake before, so that was my "inspiration" but we changed the base color and broach color.  The advice for a fellow baker is to let your lace pieces chill before you un-mold them and maybe again before you apply them to the cake.  If you are pressing a soft piece of fondant firmly, you will loose some of the detail due to squishing.  I love Fondarific or these pieces because they get firm very quickly in the cooler.  Also, don't overfill the mold or the lace will be thick and that's just not attractive :)  Now go make some tan icing!