Woo Hoo! I Finally Finished A Quilling Cake!
Decorating By i_heart_pastry Updated 6 Aug 2007 , 8:05pm by novacaine24
I have wanted to do a quilling cake for so long & now I've finally finished one! I had made some flowers a couple of weeks ago for a 2-tier cake that I was going to serve to some friends, but I had a cake disaster (story in the disaster forum)! Then I had an order for a floral cake that ended up falling through. Finally, I received a call yesterday afternoon asking if I could do a small last minute floral cake for this morning, and I finally had my opportunity to use those flowers! Yay!
I was pretty happy with how it turned out. I still think the 2-tier would have looked better, but at least the flowers found a home! 
Thanks for looking!
Bec
Beautiful!! What did you use to attach the flowers, royal icing?
I've wanted to try one as well and was even thinking about it last night! I'm new to the cake thing and figured I could at least play around with some fondant even though I'm scared to attempt a full cake design right now.
Yep, I used RI to attach everything. I picked up a pretty solid plastic clay gun at Michaels to use just for fondant, and it's working great. There are so many neat things you can do with it, plus it's dishwasher safe. I've still only used a few of the attachments & I can't wait to try out some of the others!
Thanks for the nice comments - I really appreciate it!
Bec
This cake is soooo cute !! I have been wanting to get a clay gun , I guess I should so I can make cute cakes like yours 
Wow. That came out great.
Now, I have a stupid question. Is quilling a technique or a theme?
Not a stupid question! It's actually a paper-folding technique. Thin strips of paper are cut and folded or curled into all kinds of neat shapes. Colette Peters used the idea on fondant in one of her books with a gorgeous result. I used the strips like she did, but I also used some of the round tubes of fondant, which I think I like better than the strips. This was really fun to make, and much easier than I thought it would be!
Bec
This is so great! Just last night I was doing a search to find everything I could on how to do quilling with fondant/gumpaste. Your cake is adorable! Can you post detailed directions? It doesn't look like you rolled the fondant for your flowers, but what did you do?
Very cool,... and gorgeous!! I would also be interested in a step by step. ( If you wouldn't mind?)
Kat
Ooohhh great idea to use the clay gun! I have one for clay and now I'll have to get one for fondant! I wondered how you got all your pieces so neat and even. Thanks for sharing!
Very cool,... and gorgeous!! I would also be interested in a step by step. ( If you wouldn't mind?)
Kat
Thanks, everyone. There really wasn't much to it. I just used the clay gun disks to get different shapes of "ropes." To use the clay gun, be sure that you've kneaded some extra shortening into your fondant, b/c it needs to be very soft and pliable. For each flower, cut 5 equal lengths of rope and shape them into petals (use more or less depending on the number of petals). You can leave the petals rounded or pinch the ends to get the pointy shape. If you want more than one layer of petal, cut another 5 pieces of rope just a bit longer than the first and shape them around the first set of petals. Once your petals are done, pinch them all together in the center and add a ball of fondant for the center of the flower (I just use a paintbrush with water to make it all stick together). If you are going to do flowers for the edge of the cake, leave a petal off so that you have a 90 degree angle. Let everything dry really well. Oh - if you're using the strips of fondant, let them dry on their edges so they don't flatten. If you don't have a clay gun, you could roll your fondant and cut it into equal strips, and that would give you the same result.
I think that is pretty much it. They were a bit time consuming until I got the hang of it, but then they came along quickly. One note about the clay gun - if you get one, go with the plastic. I bought a cheap metal one at AC Moore - once I got it home, I quickly discovered that it was not food safe. The plastic one I have came from Michaels, and I think it cost between $6 and $8 (less with coupon). It's in the clay section and it's bright green. Hope this helps - happy caking!
Bec
Wow!! Great job! I have been wanting to do a quilled cake for a year!! 
Thanks so much Bec!! It looks like so much fun, Im looking forward to getting started! I went to Michaels today and they didn't have one. Will try another one.
Thanks Again ~)
Kat
Bec!!!!! Your cake is gorgeous!!! I love the look of quilling, and you really did a fantastic job!!! I'm saving it to my favorites!
One note about the clay gun - if you get one, go with the plastic. I bought a cheap metal one at AC Moore - once I got it home, I quickly discovered that it was not food safe. The plastic one I have came from Michaels, and I think it cost between $6 and $8 (less with coupon). It's in the clay section and it's bright green. Hope this helps - happy caking!
Bec
that reminds me - i bought the silver metal one at Michaels and the silvering inside flaked off into the fondant! Luckily I was using white and could see it! 
OMG, I love it! I just knew I needed a clay gun...now I have a reason! Great job!
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