I decided to not wait until the last minute to make this graduation cap that I have to do for Friday.. I made my fondant today and I put my base of the cap on top of a upside down water bottle (It's a weird form and seems to big for a 10 inch cake) and I tried making a tassle and it didn't turn out! I tried cutting the ends with scissors and then tried a knife and they kept falling off!! And my square I cut for the top won't hold it's shape and it's been sitting for hours!! I don't know what to do!!!!!!!
http://www.simplicitydesserts.com/images/gallery/cakes/graduation-cake-lg.jpg
That is the cap I am trying to do... ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Can anyone help me??
And my square I cut for the top won't hold it's shape and it's been sitting for hours!!
It won't dry within hours, since you didn't use a 50/50 mix of fondant and gumpaste, but it will be dry before Friday. If you'd like to dry it faster, you can put it in the oven with only the lightbulb on, but be sure to put a sticky note on the oven door to prevent anyone from preheating the oven while it's in there.
Are you using a clay gun for your tassle? If so, extrude twice the length you need, then fold the bunch in half. If strings fall off, you'll have plenty of extra.
If you're not using a clay gun, you can just make a long cone shape of fondant. Draw a pointed tool down the length of the cone to give the illusion that it's a bunch of strands.
First - the size of the cap (see picture below)
The cap on the picture you attached is a bit under 1/3 of the width of the cake. So, for a 10 inch cake, your cap base should be approximately 3 to 3.3 inches wide. Make this with a toothpick sticking out of the top as high as the tassel and white dot.
For the square, if you are using true fondant, mix in a bit of wilton gum-tex. That will make it harder. If your are using something like Chocopan, it will not set-up and harden. Put a small hole in the center of the square to accept the toothpick from the base.
As for the tassel, at the least I would use the fondant/gumtex mixture. First create your wider snake of material (rope that attaches tassel to the hat. Then create a fondant/gumtex strip as wide as the tassel is long, plus a little for attachment. Attach it around the end of the wider snake just enough for it to hold. Lay the snake with the roll down on wax paper. Snip the fondant roll to create tassels and prop a bit of cotton, like a q-tip covered in powdered sugar in the center so the fondant tassel pieces have something to rest on while drying. Put the bend in the snake part so it dries ready to attach to the hat.
After it all dries,
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