Welcome to the Cake Decorators Q&A

Hi. I recently made the F1 cake using the tutorial and it is by far my best cake to date! My Dad loved it. I used the edible paint and all worked like a dream. I want to use the same principle for a Hillman Imp cake I have been asked to make, using blue. However, I also wanted to try out steaming the cake to get a shiny finish all over, as the white and black sections will not be painted. Can I steam the cake after I have painted the blue? I noted on the F1 cake the the painted remained tacky, even 48 hours after applying it. Will steaming make this more of an issue, or will it be worse and run??? Hopefully someone knows what, if any, damage the steamer might do…….

Hello Twizzlle 13

I’ve only ever steamed items which have been coloured with dry powder colours. Steaming helps set the colour and also give a shine. I would be a little wary of steaming liquid painted objects unless they were complely dry.
If you want to do this, experiment on a spare piece of sugarpaste which has been painted and see whether it makes the paints streak. Steamers do have to be used with care, not to get too close to the cake or steam the cake for any more than a few seconds. Other things to lookout for is droplets of water which leave watermarks and ruin the cake. Hope this helps.

Hi
Why not try the PME clear spray glaze. It dries quick and you can do more than one layer to get it shiny.
For areas that you do not want to glaze I would think that you could cover them over with parchment paper then remove once the glaze has been applied
Jackie