Hi All,

I can make a pretty gumpaste or fondant bow, but I would like to know how people put the pearls along the edges/border of the bow. How are they attached? Also, are the tiny pearls usually made of fondant or gumpaste as well? Or do most people use the sugar pearls you can buy?

Much thanks,

Crislyn

I've done the pearl border on the bow edges before. It's a pretty look, but it's very time consuming. I use very small pearl strands of fondant, which can be a pain in the butt to make (for me at least, the smaller the pearls, the harder and more frustrating the strands are to make). I don't think sugar pearls will attach very well to the bow, so I'd definitely use the fondant pearl strands. I use gum glue or water to attach mine.

If you have Sugarshack's Boxes and Bows DVD, she shows how to do it.

I just pipe them on in royal icing, then paint with pearl dust after it dries. Much faster & easier!

Jen - thanks. I like the idea of piping them on with RI. Do you assemble the bow and then pipe them on? I imagine you would have to do it that way or else by the time the RI had dried enough your gumpaste or fondant would be all dried up too... Wondering if it is really difficult to get the RI pearls into the small spaces though..

For the big loopy bows (like on a present), which I have not done a whole lot of, I've always made the loops ahead and let dry, then assemble. I never had any luck with assembling them before they were dry because if they were dry enough to hold their shape, they were too brittle to handle unless I let dry completely. So I piped the bead border on and let dry before I assembled the bow. For a regular bow, like a bow tie (I do more of these), I pipe them on after the bow is assembled and dried.

Glenda Galvez(auntglendascakes.com) has a great video on this. She is actually the first person that i seen do this at the ices convention. you take a ck 3 mm pearl mold. dust it with pearl dust. Roll out a small sausage of fondant/gumpaste mixture. place in mold,etc. When it comes out , it has a little ridge on back of the pearls. you have your loop already cut. Lay the pearl string along side the loop edge with the ridge that is on the pearls on top of the loop. take a dresden tool, and press down along the edges. first you add some glue to the edge of the bow loop. Then attach together at ends with glue. Make the bow tails the same way. Love to make bows this way. hth you make this as you go. NOt let the loops dry , then do it. I just sat mine up on its edges. The golden anniversary cake in my pix show this.

icer101 That cake was beautiful!