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Buttercream and royal icing tiers
I have been asked to make a 3 tiered rusting wedding cake. The bride requested two sponge tiers to be covered in buttercream and the top tier is a small fruit cake which is to be covered in marzipan and royal icing (to match the b/c).
I shall be softening the royal icing and tinting it slightly to match the texture and look of b/c… however I’m worried that when I stack the royal icing tier onto the b/c tier, the grease from the b/c will effect my royal icing. Has anyone done this before with any success or have any tips!
Will my royal icing tier lose all the definition in the texture and drop because of the buttercream tier beneath?
Hi georgebakes
Firstly, the fruit cake can be made and iced well in advance. It will still set up despite the icing being softened, the texture just won’t be as hard as true royal icing. When it comes to stacking this tier, it will be on it’s own cake card, placed on the dowels on the tier below. It will not be coming into contact with any of the buttercream. The chances of any fat migrating into the royal or spoilage would be minimal if any. The only way it may affect the royal icing is, if the buttercream tiers are very cold, straight out of refrigeration and full of condensation.
I hope this helps.
Thank you- the b/c will be Paul’s crusting recipe with white choc ganache, so it shouldn’t need refridgeration!
That has put my mind at rest. i was worried about the migration as I’ll need to pipe a small royal icing border in between tiers as there is no ribbon on the design. As you rightly pointed out- the tiers will be set- so not as panicked now. ?
Paul’s recipe is pretty robust. I made it for the buttercream quantities chart blog. Afterwards, I left it lying around in the sun for weeks on end to test it’s stability. It remained stable and took ages to melt down in boiling hot water once I had finished testing it. I think it’s a winner!
If you’d like to peek at the chart for the amount of ganache to use in the buttercream see it here:
Hope it helps and good luck with your cakes. 🙂
