I have an order for this wedding cake but I can't tell from the picture how it was done.  Could I best do this with real ribbon or by somehow painting it on the cake?

[postimage id="4964" thumb="900"]Here's the pic. 

Hello mayra92. It looks to me that these are real satin ribbons. They have been glued to the fondant undernith with tiny and flat drops of royal icing and them streched out over the fondant. That shiny finishing could only be accomplished with the real fabric ribbon. I don't think that by painting them even with "super" luster powder you are going to get such a clean result.

Looks to me like fondant with luster dust. I get mine to shine by painting and then dusting.  I would do it before puting on the cake.

It looks like fondant, but it's hard to tell.

I'd say it's fondant. If you zoom in closer you can see that the ribbon actually isn't level with the side of the cake but stands out a bit if that makes sense. And I don't think it's fabric because the same fondant boarder was used around each tier base but just in white. Also it goes from thin to slightly thicker. If you would attempt to cut the satin ribbon it would fizzle too much I guess. 

If you use yellowish fondant and then paint with Americolour gold gel couple of times you get it very shiny. Dust might leave makes on the white fondant around...

I think its fondant, look up Ron Ben Isreal I just found a video on his instagram @rbicakes I'm almost certain that cake is one of hiss

True, which is why I dust anything / everything before applying to the cake.