Hi all, I am doing a cake that I need even/straight rows & columns of small fondant dots, all up & down & around the side of the cake. (The cake will be covered in fondant.) How can I make sure that all the columns and all the rows are straight? I know my skills, and freehanding it is not an option, & so I'm at a bit of a loss - any help would be greatly appreciated - TIA!

I know you can get an impression mat that has dots on it. After you impress it into your fondant of crusting BC you can then go back and put dots on it. Try Cakes by Sam or Earlene Moore's site for the mats.

I would take my ruler & make graph paper (or use some if you have it)... plot out your dots on the graph paper and put it up against the cake. Poke holes in the dots you plotted with a tooth pick or a bamboo skewer. That will show you where to place your dots. They will be straight as your graph paper. You can also do it on waxed paper, but the graph paper is what I have available.

This has always worked for me.

This idea is crazy, but I've never hesitated to use tape on my cakes to make measurments. You could use a 2" masking tape, or 1" (whatever your measurements should be) and make ruler marks on the tape. Then, use your tape like a guide, taping it flush with the bottom of your cake, make a poke in your fondant, then peel the tape off the fondant and put it on again flush to the last row of dots that you did. This might work well, but depending on how much powdered sugar you use, it could run out quickly. Just a thought...hope it helps! good luck!

Laser level

What a great idea with the laser level... now, if I can just learn how to use one! ... but if it is not on a level surface, will the dots all be crooked?

I was getting ready to post a reply to this yesterday about the laser level but got the "cake central is down for maintenance" page instead!!

I use the paper I used to use in math-class, with the little squares on them... makes it easy to measure.
Then just put around the cake and poke small holes as described above....