One of the terrific ways to decorate a cake is with scenery. This can be achieved systematically as will be shown. The cake is first iced in a thin layer of buttercream and then poured with a lukewarm fondant. Before painting the scene, the cake should dry for one hour. Scenery painting in icings can be practiced on corrugated cardboard circles before attempting an actual cake scene.



A thinned down boiled icing and vegetable paste colors are used for this type of painted cake top. In painting a scene such as the boat, clouds and land in background, a picture may be obtained and copied in the following manner:

With a brush approximately 11/2 inches in diameter, a small amount of thinned down boiled icing is placed in the skyline area. Using the brush in a back and forth motion, the skyline is painted in.

With a tiny brush, place four or five small dots of blue paste color in the skyline area. Using a larger brush in a series of back and forth motions gives the skyline a blue variegated effect.

A large cone of white boiled icing with a 1/4 inch opening at the tip is used in a zig-zag motion at various intervals to obtain the cloud effect. Go over this cloud area with a clean brush to give it a smooth realistic look.

The water area is made by piping on a thinned down white boiled icing and then adding a few drops of blue and green paste color. Then, with the use of the large brush in a series of sweeping motions, create the greenish blue water effect. Use the deeper colors for the distant water. The ship may be put in with the fill-in method or it may be outlined and then painted on with the brush as illustrated.

Before putting in the clouds and after the blue is put on, a few dots of yellow, orange and a tint of violet may be brushed right above the horizon to give a sunset effect. After practicing a few simple scenes such as these, you will see that scenery painting is simple and fast once you have acquired the technique of using the brush properly.

For a Western scene, the sky can be painted in first as previously described. The mountains can then be piped on with a white and brown icing. Then, using a small brush, a few dots of deep colored icing can be put on the crevices and then smoothed nut with a larger brush. The cowboy and horse can be painted on with a very small brush in deeper colored boiled icing thinned down to the consistency of oil paints.

A Halloween scene can be painted in chocolate, orange and yellow. In a scene such as that, you must keep in mind the angle of the moon's shadows. This cake can be bordered with individual shells using the No. 30 star tube and was overpiped in a deep color with a No. 3 tube using a question mark design.