hi i'm attempting to make my first fondant bow but i'm confused on how it stands up on the cake. I do not want to lay it flat but have it stand up tall. I will be using either a mixture of fondant and gumpaste or all gumpaste - which do you think i should use?? And how do I make it stand up tall without falling over? Will it be too heavy to do that if i use either fondant or gumpaste?

Are you doing a big loopy bow or a two loop bow? I have photos on my photos of both styles. Let me know and I can tell you how to do what you are looking for. DianeLM made a GREAT loopy bow tutorial.....

Buddy 'Cake Boss' has a great tutorial. This is the one I used when I was making my first bow. It has nice pictures and takes you through the process and step by step.
http://www.cakeboss.com/FondantBowTutorial.aspx

Imake mine and lay the loops on their sides to dry and it works very well

Check out the instructions in my signature below.

thanks everyone for the wonderful links! to answer the question above, i am wanting to do a two loop bow.

so how do i prop it up on the cake? do i lay a ball of fondant behind the bow for support?

If you want to do a two loop bow, you can go to youtube and search how to make a fondant bow. There is a quick tutorial there. You will have to have some stuffing to stuff into each sided loop while it dries. You will have to plan it out, and I would make a test bow a week in adance (if you have enough time). I let my bows dry for at least 12 hours before placing on a cake. The two loop bow is quite simple and I think you will be surprised at how quickly you learn it. I like Planet Cake's You Tube tutorial. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=07ss0Pq3OdU&feature=related

thank you trish!! That was a really helpful tutorial. However I didnt hear if he used gumpaste or fondant or both? Thats something I'm confused about. I am thinking I will mix both together so it will dry faster. I'm traveling with it in the car for 5 hours so I want to make sure it is dry in time. But i dont want it too hard that i hit a bump and it cracks!

The reason some people mix fondant and gumpaste is to get the best of both worlds: Gumpaste dries very fast, but the down side of that is that you have to work with it very quickly before it starts drying out. Mixing fondant in gives you a little more "play" time to get them set in their drying positions.

I used just regular fondant. I only mix my fondant with gumpaste if I am doing a big bow or big project. That is just my preference. I guess you can add tylose or gumpaste if you want to. I have never worked with just adding tylose.

Also, as a side note, I am in the process of buying The Mat - which is a vinyl mat that you roll your fondant out with (actually not sure if it is one mat or two, as the video used two - on on top and one on bottom). I suggest that you consider trying this to keep your fondant covered while you are working with the other pieces. I learned recently that the bows tend to crack if you use too much PS or PS/Cornstarch (which is what I have been using to dust the rolling surface so it wouldn't stick). If you search around on CC or google you can find some inexpensive alternatives to The Mat to try for a simple project. I bought a silicone cookie sheet liner to cover my fondant while I work with one piece at a time, but I don't use it to roll it out.

For traveling, just put it in a little shoe box lined with a bunch of viva towels (make sure no moisture gets in that box!) and it will be fine.

I attach my bows with Royal Icing, melted chocolate or buttercream (if I have to). The easiest for me seems to be the melted chocolate.

thank you again! I actually just had a terrible moment with my bows. I made three of them (and yes there were not as hard as I thought!). Two out of fondant mixed with gumpaste and one just gumpaste b/c I ran out of fondant. I attached all the pieces together with egg whites mixed with water and let them dry on the wilton fondant mat overnight. I had to pick them up to put them in their carrying cases for the trip today and two out of three of them broke. Only the gumpaste one did not break. The other two are slightly usable - only the ribbon strips broke off which I can probably roll out today (the cake isnt till tomorrow). I am still bringing all three with me and when I get to my destination (my sisters house 5 hours away) i will quickly sit down and make a few more bows out of gumpaste hoping they dry within the 18 hours i will have before the cake needs to be assembled.

They broke during the transportation from the mat to the carrying cases. I used my hands and nothing else to pick them up and carry them over. Is there a better way to do this so they dont break? I also think maybe my fondant was too dry and thats why the pieces broke so easily.

Maybe you are rolling it too thin as well. I generally use water to attach everything together, then sit it out to dry for 12 hours before I move it again. I probably roll it on a 5 with my pasta roller (I have no idea what inch depth this thickness would be). The pasta roller is quite a help with bows and it was $20 at Ross or Marshalls. I would make more today if you can - and go a little thicker with your fondant. You might want to whip up some MMF to use as it will dry faster than the gumpaste.

Oh, sorry, one more thing - I don't ever pick the bows up. I slide my silicone mat over and "slide" it onto my open hand, then the bottom of the bow is resting on the mat, and the mat on my hand. Then I "slide" it into the box, or on the cake --

Another tutorial:

http://www.cakejournal.com/archives/how-to-make-a-gum-paste-bow

She doesn't put the tails on the bows until the bow is already in the cake. Just another idea.

thanks again for the help! I'm going to try to attach a picture of the final outcome. I should have just put the tails on the cake w/o letting them dry all the way. Then it ended up cracking and sliding down as the party went on (but when I noticed it, I made sure we started cutting the cake right away! so no one else noticed). Anyone know why that happened? Could it be from how I transferred the bow to the cake? I started to pick it up and noticed it wasnt going to hold up so then I held the cardboard round it was sitting on over the cake, and used a spatula to hold the bow underneath while I slid it on the cake.

Also I never commented on your "The Mat" post earlier - I LOVE the mat and really want to buy it. I told the owner of my local cake decorating supply store that she has to get it. I ended up buying the daddio silicone mat which works super well and is a great alternative to THE MAT, although more expensive!

thanks again for the help! I'm going to try to attach a picture of the final outcome. I should have just put the tails on the cake w/o letting them dry all the way. Then it ended up cracking and sliding down as the party went on (but when I noticed it, I made sure we started cutting the cake right away! so no one else noticed). Anyone know why that happened? Could it be from how I transferred the bow to the cake? I started to pick it up and noticed it wasnt going to hold up so then I held the cardboard round it was sitting on over the cake, and used a spatula to hold the bow underneath while I slid it on the cake.

Also I never commented on your "The Mat" post earlier - I LOVE the mat and really want to buy it. I told the owner of my local cake decorating supply store that she has to get it. I ended up buying the daddio silicone mat which works super well and is a great alternative to THE MAT, although more expensive!

Okay i tried to attach a picture and it didnt work!

When I make a bow - and I have one made that I need for tomorrow - I use fondant mixed with Gum-tex powder. I hate trying to color gumpaste, and because fondant comes in so many great colors, I can just use that with some gum-tex and get the best of both sides. The fondant is pliable and has such nice colors, and the gum-tex powder makes it dry like gumpaste. Mine has to stand up on the cake as well. I considered inserting toothpicks or skewers into it while still "soft" and letting them dry in the bow, then inserting the other ends of the sticks in the cake to stand it up. I didn't end up doing that as I have other accessories on the cake that will hold up the bow. Hope you get it to work!

I use pure gum paste...Wilton's pre made gum paste. I love how thin I can get it without it tearing...and I like forming the 'tails' and letting them look loose and flow-y. It dries very quickly so you can actually make the bow like you form a ribbon bow and hold it for a few seconds and then lay it to dry in the position you want. I stuff paper towels in the loops or anywhere you want a lift. It's fun. I made a Christmas cake with a huge 3 loop bow and the top loop stood up. When I made the loop I put a toothpick at the base and it stood up great. The nice thing about using gum paste too is that when it dries, your items are very light as opposed to how heavy fondant can get.

Carmijok - thank you for the explanation! So how do you make your ribbons so flowy? I had a hard time with making them not so stiff.

Carmijok said it: she uses gumpaste as opposed to fondant mixed with tylose. Gumpaste can be rolled really thin and it dries hard. The best of both worlds.

Thank you, Carmijok! It never even crossed my head that I could use gumpaste to do this. Now I see how they would look flowy using it instead.

tell us all about The Mat!!!! Im interested but also curious about the difference in The Mat vs plastic they sell at the fabric store.

thanks!!