I came across the tutorial video on here..
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wqjLAO3fRDs&feature=channel
about inserting these pieces of ribbon around the cake to make it look woven in. My wedding cake had ribbon wrapped around it, no problem, you know to remove it. However with the effect in the video, is it just for show? Or do some actually serve cakes like this? Do you have to tell them to remove all those tiny pieces of ribbon before serving I'm assuming?
Sorry if this is a dumb question.. lol
I would tell them to remove the ribbon before serving. But I've seen this technique done with ribbon made out of gumpaste, too, and it's quite nice. When you cut the pieces of gumpaste "ribbon", you leave them to dry over a dowel or something that has the curvature you want them to have when you insert them into the cake. You can brush them with some luster dust so they have a more satiny look, if you want to. Then you just insert them into the slits the same way it was done in the YouTube tutorial. That way you don't have to worry about pulling them out or not when the cake is served.
Nothing else to add, except I would kill to get the full Elaine MacGregor DVDs here in the States. 
Hi, auzzi. I just wanted to say that lovely is lovely whether it's considered old-fashioned or not. I agree that some kinds of cake decoration are better off behind us, but I think this one is very pretty and, actually, might be making a comeback, if the number of times I've seen it lately is any indication. It's true that people don't usually eat gumpaste decorations (although people continually surprise me!), but at least you don't have to worry about them downing actual ribbon thinking it's rice paper or something.
Nothing else to add, except I would kill to get the full Elaine MacGregor DVDs here in the States.
Agreed. She is one of my cake decorator "crushes." LOL
Hi !
It's a nice technique. Personally I do not like decorations with non-edible ornaments. Anyway, it's worth trying it with strips of gum paste, gelatin or pulled sugar (or isomalt). It is true that no one eats the decorations, but some do like eat them as a candy.
might be making a comeback, if the number of times I've seen it lately is any indication.
Lovely techniques do go out of fashion, but never die out completely. Extensive use of techniques like overpiping, extension work, pressure piping, ribbon insertion, brushed embroidery, broderie anglaise, stencilling, run-outs,cocoa painting,sugar bells, free-form moulding etc all take time. And today's clients are not prepared to pay for the time, effort and expertise that goes into producing these effects on cake.
When ribbon insertion was a common technique, clients knew it was fabric - rice paper? It would never have crossed the decorator's or client's mind .. Thirty years after the fact - modern clients may not ..
Unfortunately this technique is considered "questionable" within modern Food and Health safety guidelines. Whether or not it is hygienic to insert fabric ribbon into the icing is the question.
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