Hi I am making a zebra print cake for a Birthday and would like the stripes to have black sanding sugar on them to make it really girly and sparkly. Does anyone know if I should apply the sugar to the stripes before I assemble the cake or should I do it after the stripes are on? I dont want the black sugar to mark up the white fondant.

Either way I think you'll end up with some on the white, but you can use a dry paint brush to get it off. Or why not use a luster/disco dust and paint the stripes?

The sugar is only going to stick where you apply your 'glue'. I'd put the sugar on the stripes before attaching them to the cake. If any falls off, just use an empty squeeze bottle to blow the sugar away.

I agree, I would do them before and let them "dry"(glue set up) before putting on the cake.

*Smacking forehead* An empty squeeze bottle! Genius! Why didn't I think of that!

There have been many times that I have wished that canned air was food safe because I needed to blow something off a piece. Dang! An empty squeeze bottle. I've got like 6 of them hanging around.

I did a mini zebra cake (in pics)...and i wanted the stripes to be sparkly too. I cut them out, lightly brushed with water and then flipped them over and "dipped" them into the edible glitter. i let them setup for a sec and then i applied them to the cake. inevitably, you're going to get the sugar on the cake. it's impossible not to. i just used a dry brush to brush them off.