So I have a wedding cake for October, and the bride LOVES this look of this cake:



At first glance when I looked at it, I thought that it might just be the layered ribbon look done with a rose tip or something of the like. But then when I looked at it again this morning, it almost looks like the spaces in between the areas of frosting that look like they're "sticking out" are flat.

Any ideas on how I might best achieve that look? I'm going to probably go ahead and do a dummy with the rose tip just to see how it looks, but wanted to get input from everyone here to see if anyone can come up with something that might get closer to the look.

Thanks in advance!

It's done by pressing your large offset in to the side of the cake as you turn it on the turn table, gradually moving the offset up towards the top of the cake from the bottom, keeping each line just above the one below it. Think of it as a big spiral around the cake going from the bottom to the top.

I hope that makes sense.

I disagree - if you simply pressed your offset into the icing - the impression you would be left with would be smooth. With this cake, it looks more like they used a turntable and a petal tip (looks like a long skinny teardrop. When you place the wider end on the icing then go around the cake, the icing coming out of the skinny end of the tip will shred and split - as seen in the photo. Have you ever tried making icing roses with stiff buttercream only to have the petals shatter and look like they've been through a wind storm. That's what I see - breaks, cracks, craggy areas.

Here's another with the offset spatula.
http://d30opm7hsgivgh.cloudfront.net/upload/93965273_hPYFCj31_b.jpg

See how smooth the raised edges are on that one. My point exactly. On the photo of the cake with the craggy ridges arranged horizontally, the edges are all shattered.

That's just done with a spatula. I did one like that, but I can't find the picture. Here's one that used the same method but vertically, not horizontally. http://acaketorememberva.blogspot.com/2011/06/making-cake-stencils.html

Looks like an offset to me too. I bet they waited until it was crusted and that created the jagged parts DeniseNH is seeing.

Here's the one I was thinking of http://acaketorememberva.blogspot.com/2010/10/autumn-leaf-wedding-cake.html

Don't wait until it's crusted, just ice the cake then drag the spatula around to make the grooves. The ragged edges are created naturally as the spatula catches icing and drags it.

Thanks for the replies guys! After I posted the thread, I was thinking about it some more, and had an Aha! moment about using an offset spatula, but it's good to know that my line of thinking was correct. I'm still gonna do a dummy, but that's just cause I like an excuse to play with buttercream.

I went to their site and it definitely looks like they do more of a rustic look, so I think that it is the spatula method. She has one on the site that is similar to this one, and that is what it looks like.

Do the lines right after frosting and leave a small (1/8th inch) gap between te lines and that should make the frosting stick out more between the lines. If you over lap them slightly you get the cleaner lines like the vertical striped cake mentioned above.

pictures are always better than words... or maybe pictures followed by words.