I've seen so many beautiful cakes featured here that use fabric ribbon as part of the design. Is it safe to apply the ribbon directly to the cake or is there some special preparation that must be done before putting the ribbon on..?
Thanks,
Cindy

I am not sure but I was thinkingof using ribbon next week on a cake so here's your bump!

Here is another bump, I am interested in adding ribbon also...actually just bought some and am wondering if it will get "oily"

Here is a lot of helpful information that was discussed in previous threads:

http://cakecentral.com/cake-decorating-ftopict-19667-ribbon.html+iron

What I have been doing lately is putting clear contact paper on the back of the ribbon. It is easy to do and keeps the butter from the icing from discoloring the ribbon.

That's a great idea Price!! I never thought about that!! thanks for the tip!
Lorris

Thanks Price.

I like the clear contact paper idea. On a cake I just recently did which used ribbon, I first applied some wax paper around the cake that was about 1/2 and inch bigger than the ribbon. It worked great.

I was putting some clear contact paper over top of some decorative paper on a cake board one day and had some scraps of contact paper left over. Since I was also using ribbon the cake I decided to try the contact paper on the back of the ribbon and loved the way it worked. I could trim it exacty to the size of the ribbon so that nothing shows and use the scraps at the same time! I love not having to throw anything away! Waste not, Want not! I hope you try the idea and like it. Let me know!!

I've used ribbon on several cake without the contact paper and never had any problems. I like to put in on when the fronsting is still damp - the ribbon sticks better. I also have used the stings of pearls you can get from the craft/frabic stores and love the way they look also.

I used ribbon on a cake without using anything under it and it stuck on there really good, but when they pulled it off to cut the cake, it pulled up the icing with it! So embarrassing! Maybe they pulled it too fast? I'm going to use something under it next time to make sure.