Ok, everyone, I really need some help here. I've been asked by a friend to do her wedding cake...........I don't do wedding cakes, but since she said it was just an informal country wedding and I could do what I wanted I figured what the heck........Now I'm in big trouble. I looked on the internet and saw this really cool "leather look" cake and thought I'd try it for this cowboy country wedding cake. I found the textured plastic table cloth at our local Hobby Lobby, did a test run on a small piece of fondant, painted it and it came out FANTASTIC........the bride was absolutly in love with the idea of covering the cake with "tooled leather".....now that I've been thinking about it I'm FREAKING out! I have never covered a cake with a textured fondant!!! How do I smooth the sides with it being textured already when I put it on??? If I take the fondant off the leather background and place it on the cake there will obviously be wrinkles/folds that I can usually work out with my hands or a fondant smoother but not if I don't want to lose my texture.........eeaakkk..........any ideas? I am really starting to panic, hope somoeone out there can help!

Get a hunk and practice. You usually have to apply the texture before you put it on the cake. then you use your hands without a smoother to arrange the fondant on the cake.

If you find that is a problem, consider adding a band of tooled leather to the cake. Either narrow, like a belt, or the full side of the cake. You can cover the seam with stitching or 'rivets'

Great ideas JoAnn...I also have always wondered how you apply texture to a smooth top cake without smoothing out the texture!

I did practice it over a bowl, just to see if the texture would hold up when I took it off the plastic and the texture came out great, but I never got around to the "arranging" part at the bottom of the layer where there is usually more fondant than is needed. Thats where I usually trim the ecess fondant and then use the smoother to press it to the cake......I did do a belt and buckle for the middle layer that will not be textured. I'm only texturing the bottom layer and the very top layer. Thanks for the suggestions. If all else fails I will just do like you said and do the sides of the bottom layer and "rivet" the top on. Thanks so much for the advise!

O.K. Just wanted to say thanks so much for all of the advise, ITS OVA!!! The cake was a success - of course I'd certainly do lots of things differently and make lots of improvements now that I see the finished product in photos, but I couldn't have done it with out you all and your tips! Thanks BUNCHES! I'd love to put a link in here to my photo, but don't have a clue how so if you'd like to see it I have uploaded the photo and some others on my page.