Welcome to the Cake Decorators Q&A

Hi everybody’s
I am trying to make a wedding cake but everything seems to be going wrong. I have covered the 11inchcake and board with sugarpaste last week. The bride wants a replica of her lace on the cake, so I have drawn a template of a rose and tried to scratch it on the side of the cake so I could do brush embroider , but the scratch marks are patchy and some pencil has come through onto the cake . I tried this tecniques on a practice cake which I only left a couple of days and it worked perfectly well could the sugarpaste be to hard.
Thank you
Ps thank you to madewithlove for the advice a few weeks ago

Hi Julix069

First of all have you tried to remove the sugar paste? If it is still in tact don’t worry about removing it, the pencil marks are harmless and many professional decorators actually draw their pattern directly onto the icing. Pencils have to be safe since they are used by small children who invariably suck on them!
Are you able to see enough of the pattern? gently go over it with a soft pencil like a 2B or 3B, then go over the marks with the brush embroidery. Sometimes if the icing is too hard it can be hard to scratch the pattern out with a pin or scriber but it will still leave an impression although sometimes difficult to follow.
I hope you will be able to rescue your pattern as dry icing is very difficult to remove and will definitely cause a certain amount of damage to the cake or board beneath.