Any tips on doing a fondant "ball" border? How can I acheive perfectly round balls? Can they be made ahead of time? How are they secured to the cake/base?
If you are after balls of all the same shape and size (rather than the variable size ones often seen on "mad hatter" style cakes), you can purchase moulds to make a string of pearls. Very easy to use. I actually weigh the amount of fondant before putting it in the mould to ensure the sizes of each string are the same.
If making by hand just work on your rolling technique in the centre of the palm of your hand.
Noosalucy< thats a cool idea. I will hv to try it! never even thought of that idea,I usually do it all by hand, Thanks
Also, you can make them ahead of time and I attach mines either using piping gel, royal icing or chocolate (just lil dabs) so not to show.
HTH
i roll my fondant out quite thickly and cut out circles using a small round cutter then roll each cut out into a ball.helps me to get them evenly sized
For very small pearl size, I use the wide end of a decorator tip...... they are sharp, and each cut is the same........ just roll them up and you have pearls or balls.......
For a large ball border I take round candies like malted milk balls or sixlets and roll out my fondant and cut with a circle cutter and wrap the circle around the candies and smooth. This also helps the balls keep their shape because the fondant doesn't flatten as bad. HTH
What are sixlets? Never heard of them.
I need to make them gumball size - but I can never roll them perfectly round. I'll have to see about the size of the pearls.
Thanks!
Sixlets are small round candies in many colors, you can find in places like Party City, where you can also find gum ball size candies in rainbow plus colors! I like them (or use malted milk balls without fondant) because people like eating them!! They also come pearl-colors and silver so what could be easier! Good luck!
MamaDear - isn't that time consuming?
Not as time consuming and rolling and rerolling to make everything the same size... Just wrap the candies with one swipe and roll in your hands, place them on the cake with the "ugly" spot toward the bottom.
Another benefit, especially with the big balls is that it doesn't take nearly as much fondant and doesn't add as much weight. I use gumballs/malted milk balls in my figures as well to make sure the heads stay round and are sized proportionately.
Thanks for the tips! I'm going to check out the sixlets (I still can't beleive I've never heard of this candy!)
Great idea on using malt balls to roll your gumpaste with. Only thing is I have problems rolling balls and getting lints on them. I washed and washed my hands and even put some crisco before rolling and for some reason, the gumpaste still gets some small lints. Very irritating. Anyone have any ideas on preventing this? Thanks.
Armids - after washing and drying hands roll some fondant around in your hands then toss it away. Sometimes, even after scrubbing, your hands may not be perfectly clean. Make sure you wear lint free clothing....no knitted jumpers.
For larger size balls I roll out even log/s, cut into same size pieces, then roll into ball. This does take a lot of fondant though.
Well, I made my cake and I went the sixlets route. Looked great! I also did a vertical gumball machine with the sixlets in it. Again, looked great! So glad I asked! Now lets see if I can upload some photos!
Quote by @%username% on %date%
%body%