Hi everyone!
I have a bride that is requesting black fondant "rope" (two strands of fondant twisted) around the bottom of each tier of her wedding cake. I have to deliver the cake and assemble there ( I live in the mountains and my road is too steep to travel with the cake assembled). My question is how do I travel with the fondant rope. I'm delivering it to a "rustic cabin" and there's no space to make the rope there so what do I do? Can it be made ahead and wrapped tightly enough, without ruining it, to still be flexible enough to wrap around the square tiers? HELP!

You might want to invest in a "rope mold" made of silicone. You just press the fondant into it. It's similar to the peal molds.

Use a clay extruder. It has a disk that will make a rope. You just squeeze it out and twist a little. Makes a great rope. I have used it on my cakes and it worked great. If you want to see what the rope would look like I used it on my beach cake. If you are looking for a little fancier rope I agree on using a mold.

Edited to add: I forgot the most important thing. If you use a clay extruder you can just take the fondant and extruder with you and make the rope as you need it. No worries about transporting. BTW I have the red and black gun , silver gun , and one made by Walnut Hollow. The Walnut Hollow extruder makes a nice long rope!

You can make the rope ahead of time and just lightly wrap with some cling wrap then make a loose coil and place it in an airtight container. This way it should stay as flexable as when you just made it. Maybe you can do a little trial for a few hours before to see how it stays.

Using an extruder is quite simple. But a helpful hint that I learned here on CC, make sure to work in extra shortening into your fondant - makes it easier to extrude and a smoother finish on the rope.

Thanks everyone! Um....where do I find a clay extruder?

I bought my Walnut Hollow extruder in the Clay section at Michaels. They used to also have a metal green extruder that alot of people seem to like. My red and black sugar gun I can't remember where I got it, but I know Sharon Zambito sells them (or used to) www.sugaredproductions.com

I like and use them both. The advantage to the Walnut Hollow is it has a larger barrel to put the fondant in so you can get a longer string of fondant.

I also got mine in the clay section of Michael's! Good luck!

I also got mine in the clay section of Michael's! Good luck!

Mine came from Michaels as well. You may want to consider the kind that opens from both ends of the barrel - makes adding fondant while you're working much easier.

I have a green aluminium Makins extruder and that works well.

I got the green Makins at Hobby Lobby. Haven't used it yet. Will let you know how it works with the cable I am making this week. It is for a Tow Mater 3D cake

Use the Makins Clay Extruder (the green one). I also purchased additional discs to use with it. I used the disc that makes 3 ropes at one time, all joined at the center and then twisted it used royal icing to attach. You can do that from home and should have no problems with it staying attached during delivery. The latest use for it is the Baby Shower Bassinet Cake on the home page tonight. That rope was stuck really good and not one bit of it came loose during a long delivery Saturday on curvy roads.

Good luck!
Pam

I want to use the ropes for Tow Mater's cables. Will they stay pliable?

Thanks

I seem to remember seeing a Two Mater cake where they used licorice ropes for the cables. I've seen the rope ones and the smooth strings at Walmart.

Either method should work. Good luck

I have a question on this. I'm not making a rope- but a braid and shoe laces for a corset top.
Would the clay extruder work for this as well?

yep, there are all sizes and types of discs available. I love my clay extruder!

Just an update on the outcome of this cake. The picture is posted (white cake, black ropes, with a wonky bow) I didn't have time to get an extruder so this is what I did. I rolled out black fondant by hand until it was about a 10" rope or so (it was still very thick at this point). Then I used my fondant smoother and just carefully, applying equal pressure along the length, continued to roll it out into ropes, moving the smoother up and down the length of the rope. This worked really well and I didn't have to get an extruder, although I'd still like to get one in the future for perfectly even rolled ropes and things.

I make ropes all kinds of ways - with the Walnut Hollow extruder, hand rolled and twisted, and with a mold. In my opinion, the mold is the most clean and reproducible and fastest method. If I'm making a really special cake, I do a hand rolled and hand braided braid. I love the look of these and because of the three strands of fondant involved, small irregularities even out. But for a quick, on location job, I'd definitely use the mold