Welcome to the Cake Decorators Q&A

Please can anyone help? I covered my drum board several days ago and it has hardened nicely. My cake is finished and whilst gluing the lettering on (in BLACK) fondant I have managed to make smudges and now have black streaky lines around the lettering. It won’t be possible to disguise them with bits of decorations,. I have tried using (dipping alcohol) but it doesn’t remove the smudges/stains. Please can anyone suggest how I can sort this. My cake is ruined 🙂

Thanks in advance

Hi clan

Have I understood correctly that you have streaks on your cut out letters? or perhaps streaks on your red board?
If your letters have got smudged you could cut extra letters out and lay them on the the originals. This will give your letters a raised effect. Any good? If your board has smudges which can’t be disguised you may need to cover it again. If this is the case and you’ve already placed and stuck your cake down you could use Paul’s up and over icing method which he uses in the traditional christmas cake tutorial. Or have a missed the point altogether?

Thanks for responding so quickly MIWL. It’s the red board that has the black smudges. Doh, I hadn’t thought of taking the lettering off and recovering. Thanks for the suggestion.

If you’re going to re cover the board add some tylose to the sugarpaste to help it dry more quickly. Unfortunately boards are pretty big areas and take a while to dry, the tylose will just encourage it on a little faster.

Some times a bit of vodka on a cotton bud will lift off a colour in the wrong place, just dab carefully