Hi!  In November, I will be making my first ruffled cake.  It is 6 tiers with the largest being 16".  For those who have made ruffled cakes, approximately how long do you think it will take?  Each tier will have 10 rows of ruffles.  The plan is to use the pasta roller on my KA, then cut several 1" lengths, cover with plastic, then ruffle and adhere one piece at a time to cake.  Cake is to be delivered on a Sat. morn, so would like to have it completed Friday evening. 

Timeline:

1. Thaw frozen cakes on Monday

2. Ice with buttercream on Tues. and put in fridge

3. Cover cakes with fondant Wed.(mist with water to stick)

4. Add ruffles to top 4 tiers Thurs.

5. Add ruffles to largest bottom 2 tiers on Friday

Also, how is the best way to serve the cake.  Will the ruffles crumble to pieces and fall everywhere making a big mess?  Can a ring be cut around the outer edge and the lift the ruffles off, cutting pieces of ruffles for each slice of cake?

Thank you so much for advice!

AIs this for a Saturday wedding? Personally, I don't like the idea of serving cake that has been out for 6 days. I would thaw Wednesday, fill / ice thrusday, apply ruffle friday, delivery saturday.

I would skip the step of covering the cake with fondant. The fondant strips will stick to the buttercream just fine. If you use a crusting buttercream you may have to use a spray bottle to get the icing a bit wet or apply a little water to the ruffled strip to make the fondant sticky.

Since you are using a pasta roller, you time shouldn't be too bad. I think if will take you most (if not all) of Friday to decorate all 6 tiers - but it shouldn't be all nighter. Now, if you work full time somewhere else and this is what you are doing in the evening then it will turn into an all nighter - ah, the joy of cake decorating.

To help save time you could on Thursday have your fondant rolled out and covered so Friday morning allows for immediate decorating actions.

I would just cut and serve the cake. I did a similar cake design back in May and the ruffles did not crumble or break when the cake was cut.

Thank you.  I'll experiment with how long it takes to cover a dummy cake and go from there plus using buttercream but will probably stick with the fondant since this is what the client and I discussed and don't want to change plans mid stream.

I just made a frill cake and the fondant ruffles are too heavy for buttercream.  I rolled the fondant to a number 6 on the pasta machine....see-through thin.....there are just too many for the butter cream to hold.  As soon as the buttercream gets to room temp, the frills slide.

I hope your ruffles do not slide like Kake-Girl. I have never tried fondant before but have seen many tutorials on youtube for that kind of thing. I am sure someone here will be able to tell you how to get frills not to slide. Good luck!! Be sure to post pictures!! Hopefully the frills will stay on the cake!!  

Cover the cake in fondant and add the ruffles the same day.  No need to wait until the next day.