What's The Trick To No Border On A Tiered Cake?
Decorating By bonnebouche Updated 14 Apr 2007 , 3:14pm by gakali
I have seen alot of pictures of tiered cakes where there is no border on the upper tiers. Just wondering how to do that? Do you extend the fondant down far enough to cover the board edge? What about if it's BC? How do you get a PERFECT egde so that it looks finished without the icing boarder, without a ribbon etc. This is driving me insane!!
I do not know of a trick, however, I did attempt this once. Customer wanted a fondant ribbon strip on the border. I first set the un-iced cake on my cake board and trimmed a bit from the edges. I recall I only had to do that for one of my three tiers, as the other two "were close enough". Then, I iced in buttercream and got as close to the edges as I could. Then, I attached the fondant strip and just barely came down over the cake board. The hardest part was attaching the strip, because you run out of hands. Hindsight, I needed something tall to place my cake on, so that I could get underneath it to work. I'm curious what the more experienced members will say. It's the cake with the bow on top, if you want to see it in my photos. Good luck.
Pam
Your cake is beautiful and the ribbon at the bottom looks great. What if it didnt have the ribbon though. Would the bottom edge just cover the cake board and look like a "clean" edge?
I covered the edge pretty well with the butter cream. Have you tried it yet? I found two things to be very difficult. One, having the cake edge "end up" close enough to the cake board edge, so that you didn't need to add too much frosting. If your cake comes up short, and you don't trim your board, you may have to add quite a bit of frosting. Two, handling was a little tricky. It was very hard to slide the tiers in and out of my fridge. I have a slight lip to the shelves in my fridge. I'd suggest putting them on a cutting board if you plan to chill. I had to use a thin spatula to get the tiers up for loading and transport. I stuck my thumb in the back side because there was no cake board to grab.
so i guess the trick is to just have the cake board be just a smidge bigger than the cake and ice it all the way down over the board. I can see where there would cause a problem with handling! Seems fondant would be easier in this instance.
I think they use the upside down method.
http://www.cakecentral.com/art.....Icing.html
Oops...sorry...didn't read the fondant part for some reason. Must be time to go to bed.
I know what she is talking about and it is a good question... I have the same problem only not really with tiered cakes...it is just hard for me to get a clean fondant bottom, period!
Even when I elevate the cake and use a knife to cut the fondant even with the bottom of the cake board, somehow it still turns out not perfectly even. GRR! Guess it takes practice.
Anyway what she is referring to is getting the fondant so close to the bottom of the cake that once you stack the cakes, there is no gap or crack between layers because you have done your fondant that flush to the bottom of the cake that you don't need a border or ribbon to cover up the divisions between tiers.
Yes, what I was referring to is exactly what Kitagrl restated but for clarification for rlsaxe....... Lets say you are only talking about a two tiered cake both covered with fondant. What is the trick for getting a super clean cut at the bottom of the top tier - all the way down over the cake board - so that when you stack it on the bottom layer it is not necessary to pipe a BC border or to put ribbon, or more fondant decorations. My question was the same for non-fondant - just BC. What's the trick for icing the cake all the way down past the board so a bottom border is not needed. Hope that clarifies it.
I don't know if this will help, but Duff on Food Network's Ace of Cakes sometimes will tint royal icing to match the fondant, then pipe a thin line of it where one tier meets the next, then smooth it so that it becomes invisible when it dries. Kind of like using caulk, but w/ royal icing instead. I thought that was so smart!! He also used it in one episode to "fix" a crack in the side of a red fondant covered cake. When it was dry, you couldn't even tell it had cracked! I was amazed.
Forgot that Duff did that. Need to remember that for the next time I do a borderless cake. Thanks for the reminder.
The way you do this is to cut the cake board 1/4" SMALLER than the cake. The fondant will go all the way down. Use a pizza knife to cut a smooth edge. Let it sit for a while so the fondsant sets and then carefully place it on the cake below....You may need a spatula to assist.
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