These delicate vertical ruffles give a nice tailored and elegant look without being too frilly and feminine. Here we paired them with some gold beading for added visual interest. They are a little time consuming to create but once you get into the swing of it, everything comes together very simply and they are well worth the effort.
Equipment
Tools
- Rolling Pin
- Pasta Roller
- Ateco 5 Wheel Cutter/ribbon cutter
- Bead Border Mold
- X-acto Knife
- Foam pad
- Rounded Modeling or ball tool
- Cardstock
- Set Square
Edibles
- Fondant
- Fondust Red Red
- Edible gold Paint
- Edible Glue
DIRECTIONS
The Cake
- Color your fondant using a ratio of 3 grams Fondust to 1 kilogram of fondant to achieve maximum color intensity. Knead for 2-3 minutes to develop the color. Fondant containing titanium dioxide may require more color.
- Cover your cake with fondant.
The Ruffles
- Make some formers out of 2” strips of card-stock folded in half lengthwise, then opened up to make a right-angle. You will need 10-12 formers.
- Using a bead border mold of your choice. Make a strip of beads, set aside to dry making sure they are absolutely straight. For this 10” cake you will need 10 strings, but make a few extra as they break very easily.
- Once dry, paint the bead strips with your favorite edible gold paint or a mix of edible gold dust and alcohol. Set aside to dry.
- Roll out some fondant, ideally in a pasta roller. The thinner the fondant the more delicate the ruffle will be. On a KitchenAid Pasta Roller #6 is perfect.
- Cut fondant into 3/4” strips using a 5 wheel cutter or other ribbon cutter. Make 10 strips a little longer than the height of your cake and cover with plastic wrap to keep from them from drying out whilst you ruffle the edges.
- Place one of the strips on your foam pad and using a rounded modeling or ball tool and short movements, thin and lightly stretch the edge with the tool half on and half off the paste to very gently thin and ruffle the edge. Do not over frill, we are just looking for a subtle ruffle effect.
- Using the edge of your foam pad to aid you, fold the strip lengthwise about one third of the way in and place it on your card former. Set aside to firm up, just long enough to hold its shape and not droop.
- Repeat steps 4-7 for all 10 strips.
- Using your set square to mark your starting point, place a line of glue vertically on your cake and attach your first ruffle so that the thinned/ruffled edge is perpendicular to the cake. Be sure to place it perfectly straight!
- With your X-Acto knife trim the top of the ruffle flush with the top of your cake.
- Add some glue next to the previous ruffle and place your second ruffle then trim it.
- Place a total of 9 ruffles.
- For the 10th and last ruffle in the sequence, you need to reverse the direction and place the new ruffle overlapping the glued section of the previous ruffle instead of next to it, so that all the edges are hidden.
- Using your set square again, attach a strip of beads to the cake using edible glue. Leave a gap between the last ruffle and the beads equal to the gap between your ruffles (about 1/4”)
- Leave an equal gap after the beads and start your next ruffle section.
- Repeating steps 4-15 for the entire circumference of the cake.
Notes
Keep your pattern-repeat to approximately 31/8” (π!) and your last section should perfectly meet up with your first.
You may need to add or remove one or two ruffles to the last section to make it fit.
The most important thing is to constantly keep checking that your ruffles are perfectly straight with your set square, it’s very easy to get out of alignment without realizing it.
I hope you enjoyed this (my first) tutorial! If you have any questions please leave a comment and I will endeavor to answer them!
~ Victoria
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