Hi All!

First of all, I'm so happy that I found a place where my questions can be answered instead of my boyfriend just looking at me like I'm nuts (Fondant...what?). I've been wanting to start baking more frequently and finally after moving into our new house I have a little bit more time to explore. I have a creative side I haven't been able to fit into my life yet and cakes really seems to be the way to do that. None the less, the past few days I've gathered all the supplies and I finished my first fondant cake (I finished it yesterday). I took pics obviously as there are some questions I have.

You can find the photos here:

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2570/3845492738_5e9a50668d.jpg
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2508/3844701133_b8bf36441d.jpg
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3486/3845492138_3d2c6a601d.jpg
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2648/3844700527_5e5002f3ef.jpg
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2512/3845491596_c4d7d2f990.jpg


1 - How do you attach ribbons without it looking bad? The only idea I could come up with was to use the piping gel I used to cover the cake before I placed the fondant on it to adhere the end of the ribbon to itself (does that make sense?). Only problem with that is that the piping gel bled through the ribbon making it look greasy/gross. Other suggestions?

2 - The circle icing around the bottom looks like crap - is there a post where I can read about doing that right? Or at least doing a better job then I did here?

3 - I made the mistake of placing the cake onto the silver tray (was all I could find at the time) prior to putting the fondant on...which made things difficult/messy when I went to cut it. Is the typical practice to put it on a stand, wrap the fondant around it, and then place it on the final tray? Any suggestions here would be a great help.

Otherwise, for my first fondant application I thought it went pretty well. I just made sure that the buttercream underneath was really smoothed out nicely before I put it in the fridge to crust over prior to putting the fondant on.

I read the big post about comments at the top of one of the forums, so if you are just browsing and don't have time to comment that's cool - but for those of you who are masters and have a few seconds, some comments might be helpful. I'm going to do a two tier within the next couple of weeks and will take pictures of that as well. I'm excited my first one turned out ok.

Thanks for reading!

Caike ^-^

very pretty, and impresive for a first timer!
the sticky post about comments is actually for cakes on this website - upload them to here, and make sure yor profile settings allow comments and away you go. if you want constructive criticism say so - but be prepared for what you might hear.


1) ribbons - always keep the seam at the back, then its not such an issue. most people do use something like royal icing, buttercream or piping gel - i dont know if it was to do with your kind of ribbon? you can just use a pretty pin to hold it in place. or even some double sided tape.

2) by circle icing, do you mean the border? i like it, but if you go on you tube, and search various wordings of border, piping, etc then you will get some videos with different ideas. but practice will help with any technique.

3) you mean cutting the fondant while decorating? not sure why you would have had problems, although having the fondant hanging (ie: cake on a turntable, or can) can make it easier to do - you also have to work faste to stop it stretching.
for most of my cakes, i just deorate on the final cake drum, you can wipe off any mess. you just need to be careful. but to do it 'properly', you would put your cake on a cake board (the thin ones) the same size as your cake and decorate (a turntable is a good investment), then place on your final cake drum (the stronger thicker ones).
xx

Wow you did a good job.

Ribbons--variety of ways--but in this case you coulda hid the ribbon spot behind the callas (behind a leaf maybe next time). You can pre-grease the back of the ribbon with spray fat like Pam so it all is the same color anyhow--sometimes you can iron waxed paper to the back of it if it's cloth ribbon-sometimes you can tape the back so it's protected.

The circle icing aka snail trail aka piped pearls look good to me. It's a matter of practice and rythm. Also where you place the opening of the tip is crucial to success--which I can't really tell on yours-- but the tail of one pearl is covered by piping the next pearl over it to cover it up. When I get to the end and the last pearl's tail will show, I wipe it off, cut it off with a pin.

Yes you are right often the cake is on a non-flexible board and decorated then placed on the decorative board.

Ideas for you.

This is amazing - especially for your first time. Your work is so clean. The only suggestion I have - and it's a personal preference - would be to cover the caked board in fondant. In this case white. When I do that I fondant the cake before I place it on the board. Nice job though!

I think your cake looks very nice, you should be proud of it. I've never used real ribbon so I'm sorry I can't help you there. I've only used fondant ribbon.
As for your border piping, that looks fine. You can go to your local craft store that sells Wilton cake items and get their practice board. It has all kinds of template papers in it that you put under the plastic cover of the board and practice piping right on top of the design, then scrape off the icing and keep repeating it until you are satisfied with your results. If you use an AC Moore, just go to their site first and print out one of their coupons. They almost always have either a 40% or 50% coupon for a single, non-sale item. I live by my coupons. The practice board is not expensive though. So much of it is just practice, practice, practice.

Kate: I love the idea of spraying the whole ribbon with Pam! Genius!