This mesh cake stencil by Karen Reeves of Caking it Up is made from a very fine mesh material which allows for application of very detailed designs onto your cakes.
With a more flexible material they are quite easy to apply to your cake, allowing you to either wrap and pin in place or simply hold in place with your hand.
Mesh stencils are perfect for using with royal icing on fondant covered cakes as they leave a perfect stain on your fondant surface. They also work great on ganache.
They also work well with some types of buttercream like American buttercream and Ermine buttercream. If your buttercream is a hard crusting one your mesh stencil will work effectively on a well chilled cake, preferably left in the freezer or fridge until it is cold and set. If you are using Swiss meringue buttercream the process is a little different. It is advised that you brush some petal or lustre dust over the pattern to achieve the stained effect rather than spreading the SMBC over the pattern.
Simply spread some of your mixture over the design, scrape back the excess and peel back your stencils. It is best to make your mixture highly concentrated in colour to ensure a perfectly stained result. The deeper the colour the better the result. Your mixture will need to be quite smooth and almost like a paint consistency to ensure the colour is able to seep through the fine mesh holes.