I have been all over the internet and see all of these beautiful brooched cakes, and I have seen the wholesale links that specifically sell cake brooches and I have seen a cake or two in the bridal magazine in my hometown where thebride used the family heirloom to place onto her cake..HOW do you apply a brooch onto a cake with ribbon?! I have been to numerous chat rooms , there is nothing on youtube but a candy mold tutorial and all the chat rooms NOONE has come up with how to , only speculations of how, and then there are those that say the brooches are not real, they are sugar brooches, and i know for a fact that that is not true...so after putting the ribbon on the cake, after making the bow and attaching the brooch onto the ribbon with the pin, HOW DO YOU APPLY THE BROOCH WITHOUT THE BROOCH PULLLING THE RIBBON DOWN or the ribbon falling off of the cake because of the weight. I would LOVE to do this for a retirement party.

I have done this before with a brooch that had a slider on the back, but it was much smaller...no weight , no problem at all.,,pleeeease someone give me an answer that can be followed step by step...thank you

You NEVER NEVER NEVER use the real heirloom. Not even if they have insurance through the roof...it''s too easy to steal or misplace in cutting the cake. Family heirloom brooches should be worn by the family not the cake.

For the cake, you make a mold from the heirloom using food-grade silicone rubber. I buy this kind of stuff at www sugarcraft.com or elsewhere. There are very detailed instructions online from one of the brands NOT under cakes but under jewellery. Google "silicone mold jewellery" to get the link.

Then you pour melted isomalt into the mold, pop out the copies, and paint with edible metallic paint (metallic dusting powder and vodka). These will be lightweight exact copies if you made the mold carefully.

You can use more melted isomalt to glue a steel T-pin to the back if the design allows you to stick the brooch through the ribbon into the cake at a drape point.

Or else the "ribbon" is gumpaste (not fondant) that has dried completely hard and will hold the weight of the candy when you use a little royal icing as glue.

When you charge for this cake, make sure you charge separately for the mold. If this is a really special design, the family will not allow you to use their mold for anybody else's cake--so they should pay for it and then be given it after the wedding.

I have to tell a story. I learned to make molds from my dentist...she did two crowns on me and she was happy to keep me quiet by explaining how she did the "impressions" that is to say perfect 3D molds of my teeth.

Since then, I have found lots of good information in jewellery books. They use the silicone to make moulds for wax pieces that are then cast into metal. So they go into the details of how to make a really good mould. You have to use mould release spray on the original piece to get it loose. You then wash that out with soap and water.

The vendor I named is not unique. Google "food grade silicone" and look at linked videos. There was a recent link on CC tutorials about making moulds for lace--that has a good link to a product. Just make sure you buy FOOD GRADE material...

In case you don;t find it, here is the new link:
http://cakecentral.com/cake-decorating-ftopict-662670.html