Spray Painting Fondant

OK, by "spray painting" I don't mean tagging; I mean adjusting the color of fondant with a coat of Color Mist Food Color Spray. You may recall, I'm in the midst of a quest to create red fondant from scratch, and this is the latest step in that endeavor. I slapped some of the brick red fondant I wound up with on a cake, and decided to give the Food Color Spray a try. As with any spray painting project, there will be overspray, so I came up with a way to mask the silver cake board. Get a large sheet of paper (for this 6" cake an 11x17" sheet of paper was appropriate), a pen, scissors, and the pan the cake was baked in.

 Start by tracing the base of the pan in the center of the paper…

 …and cut it out just on the outside of the outline (you'll need to allow extra space beyond the edge of the pan for the undercoating and fondant).

When you have the size right, slide the paper on over the cake, down to the board.

 Do some test sprays on a paper towel. You want to hold the can at a 45 degree angle to the cake and about 12" away from the surface. Use sweeping, overlapping strokes; don't ever hold the can still while you're spraying.

 When you're done spraying the cake, cut the paper away and remove it. Don't try to lift it back up over the cake.

In a fit of urban whimsy, I felt the need to tag this cake. I went online and found this free graffiti font, Street Soul. 

I printed out a 6x6" image of it and laid it over the cake. I traced over it with a ballpoint pen, just hard enough to leave a faint imprint in the fondant.

 I removed the printout and did a second pass with the knife tool from the Wilton Deluxe Gum Paste Tool Set:

 I loaded a piping bag with thinned royal icing and the oval Ateco tip #57 (one of my faves for text) and knocked out a tag. I guess it's true; if you run into me in a dark alley, you'll probably get iced (but not like that).