what is the straw trick?

In the 'what's new cupcake?' book they use phyllo dough for the husks.

I made am ear of corn cake 2 years ago for the state Fair that took first place. I carved te cake to look like the ear, covered the sides in green fondant to look like the shucks, then used yellow and white royal icing to pipe int he kenals. It looked realy cool. I didn't cover the enitre thing with fondant though. I used s bone tool to put creases in it to make it look like the leaves, and actually used several pieces of the green so it looked like you could peel them back one at a time.

Hope this helps!