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Hi I am fairly new to cake decorating and I made the grey teddy bear cake this weekend. I used a liquorice food colour and mixed it really well in my food mixer. I started piping round the ovals of the foot just like Paul said and carried on with the rest of the cake. As I was icing I noticed that the first rows of piping were going a lighter colour. I tought it was just as it was drying. When I had finished the cake I put it into the fridge as the party wasn’t untill the day after. When I got it out the next day the first leg that I had iced was a much lighter colur than the rest of the cake. It’s a good job it was only for my daughter as I would not have been able to charge for it as it was really obvious. What have I done wrong?

My best guess would be that there was a bit of the bowl that the whisk attachments didn’t reach as much. Did you scrape down the sides and then whisk again? I make my buttercream with an electric mixer but then mix the colour in by hand using a plastic spatula so I can scrape the sides and make sure its evenly mixed. If it actually changed colour after you had piped it then its a bit of a mystery! These things also happen to experienced decorators so don’t be disheartened. You just need to come up with a professional way of hiding it – in this case I would have made a little blanket for ted, maybe with the recipients name on it?, and draped it over the dodgy foot!

Thank you for your advise. Hopefully it won’t happen again but at least if it does I know how to hide it.