Welcome to the Cake Decorators Q&A

I am going to do the fairy castle and if I want to adapt to stone or brick using a template will I do this before I put the sugar paste on the cake. I am worried when I smooth it the brick work will smooth out so you will not see the effect.

Hi kbrown, I would say you put the effect on afterwards. I have seen the patchwork cutters videos and they put it on afterwards. By the looks of it you are going to need plenty of time as the castle looks big. I have just done a small cake in the shape of a conservatory and did the 3 layers of brickwork by hand.
Keep a watch on the answers to your question as other people may have done something similar and have different ways of doing things. That is what this site is good for amongst other lovely stuff. Best of luck to you.

Hi kbrown

I did the fairy castle cake last week and used JEM products embossing mats for the brick work. These mats come in pairs, cobble stone, stone work, brick and wood. I iced the cakes first, then worked around the cake, embossing from the top down. Occasionally the brick embossing will overlap but it doesn’t really show up too much once the cake is completely decorated. I added the Merida model and Unicorn model onto the board which took the eye away from any imperfections in the brick work. If you go back to your original question ‘fairy castle cake’, there are other tips which may be of help to you. Have lots of fun making this cake, I did!