Hello hello,

I'm attaching a wrap of hessian (burlap) and lace, backed in grease-proof paper, to a buttercream cake. Being buttercream, it will stick by itself, but needs something to pull it firm around the cake, so it doesn't fall or look loose. So far only pins would do this when I practiced. I tried making little wooden pins out of the ends of wooden kebab skewers, but as it has to go through two layers (for a bit of overlap) of paper, hessian and lace, this didn't work very well.

(Side note - customer is aware of the risk of little fibres from the material going into the icing - thankfully the wrap was custom made and doesn't seem to fray!)

Any alternatives, or are pins my best option with a big warning written to the cake-cutter?! Thanks.

I honestly would refuse to make a cake like that. There is a burlap lace mat which could be used to make lace lookING like burlap.

Anyway, I think pins and needles would just add to the problem. How about edible glue, piping gel or something like that as an adhesive? 

when it was custom made it should have been glued shut -- but only thing i can think of is to weave a thread through the back and into the burlap every so often -- on top and bottom if it's wide --

best to you

What if you paint the underside of the ribbon (grease -proof paper part) with a thin coat of edible glue or a thinned out piping gel.  Start wherever the two ends will meet and slowly work the ribbon  around to the other side.

Thanks all! Hoping that using something in liquid form will be enough to hold the wrap firm around the cake without any sagging. It's always the little things like this that take the most brain power and consume lots of time!

Cheers.