1 Attach the cake to the board, left of center, stick the ribbon to the board with double sided tape and the deep ribbon to the cake with the royal icing.
Add red extra to red mexican paste, cut out letters and attach to cake with a glue using pattern pieces as a guide.

2 Place water in a pot and have a damp dishcloth handy. Make up small icing bags with greaseproof or parchment paper.
Cut 0.5in (1cm) off the point, insert No.1.5 nozzle and half fill with soft peak, white royal icing.

3 Place perspex over silhouette pattern and pipe around the outline then leave to dry thoroughly.

4 Roll out some white mexican paste to plastic flap thickness, dust the top and underneath. Turn over the perspex, place on the paste and press all round the outline of piping to indent the paste.
Take perspex off carefully and place somewhere safe.

5 Rub a little white vegetable fat on the scalpel blade to eliminate the dragging effect and cut round the outline of the collar very carefully.
Keep a plastic flap over paste not being worked on, to keep it flexible.