In this tutorial, I will demonstrate how to make a beautiful ruffled garland of fondant. Ruffles continue to be a popular trend in wedding cakes, and I think that you will love this simple, yet impressive technique!
Details/Materials:
My tiers are 8″/6″/4″
Use your preferred fondant (I used Satin Ice)
Royal Icing (from our recipe section–thickened to piping consistency with confectioner’s sugar)–this is for the borders
Waxed Paper- To help with placement of the border (optional)
Straight Pins/Toothpicks–to hold ruffles into position as they set
Americolor Teal (I tinted 10oz. of fondant (282g) for the ruffles)-
Tylose- I used this to slightly stiffen up my fondant–I also use it for my tylose/”sugar” glue
Wilton Tip 2- Used in piping my border
Fondant Multi-Ribbon Cutter-(aff.) I use FMM brand
Wilton sugar pearls
cardboard cake circles (cut down to the size of each tier)
Bubble Tea Straws/Dowels/support system of your choice
Pedestal or cake base of your choice. (I prefer cake bases of ½″ width at least for cakes this size)
Vinyl mat of some sort to keep fondant ribbons fresh until it’s their turn to be ruffled. (Not mandatory but it helps!)
these colors together just scream elegant. I think this is so beautiful.
Going to share this idea with a bride….hope she likes it because I think it is gorgeous!! Would love to do one :)
Thank you for another wonderful video. What a beautiful cake!
I can’t wait to try this! I have a few dummy cakes to do, and this will definitely be one of them.
Great video!!! The cake is very elegant. I from PR, where find the ribbon cuttter on Internet??? Thanks!!!
Oh, this is beautiful! Do you think I could get the same effect out of modeling chocolate or butter cream? My clients in this area are requesting no fondant! LOL
Hi Yamy, our is a FMM Multi Ribbon Cutter . You might want to Goggle to find the best price. We may have bought ours from sugarcraft.com .
Very elegant!
Thanks Melissa…I love this look and have been trying to figure out how to make and attach the ruffles!
Absolutely gorgeous. I just finished watching the video and I want to thank you for always taking the time to explain everything so well. I have learned so much since I joined My Cake School. I can’t wait to try this technique.
Beautiful!!!
Everybody, thank you so much for your comments! I’m so happy that you enjoyed the tutorial–I hope that you will give it a try!
That’s beautiful, Melissa! Thanx again, to you and Bebe, for all you do. I enjoy the videos so much! =)
so beautiful, most times less is more and this certianly is more !!!!! I can’t wait to try this one
gorgeous…I can’t wait to try this!
Thank you Melissa !
Beautiful…I love the tutorial!
It’s Gorgeous!!!I can’t wait to try this one!! Thank you Melissa and BeBe.
Great tutorial, the cake is so beautiful. What cake recipe did you use for the wedding cake? I look forward to the butter cream ruffle tutorial for non-fondant lovers. Again great job.
Thank you once again Melissa and Bee Bee, this is stunning and as usual great insructions. I can’t wait to try it out.
Hey Melissa & BeBe,
Another elegant and simple cake design. I was so excited to see another tutorial from you guys. You made my day!
Hi Yummy23, we used the White Almond Sour Cream recipe.
Is your cake covered with fondant or buttercream? It looks so smooth. Can you use tylose glue to attach fondant accents to buttercream?
So absolutely beautiful!! this is one of my favorite cake tutorials!! thanks guys!
love the video!! all of them! =)
I so love the ruffles Melissa ! Can’t wait to try this look…I am taking a fondant/modelling chocolate night course and I think I will make this design for my last class cake in 2 weeks time..If I do I will show it off here :)
Hi Melissa,
Very elegant and nice cake. Do you have any cake design for rectangle cake. I will be making a cake for 35 people for a retirement party in our office. Since there are 4 people retiring next month i was thinking of making a rectangle cake instead of the round ones. Thank you in advance.
Thank you for another great video. I have an wedding cake to make and the bride wants these ruffles on a buttercream frosted cake. Sweetcreation and I would like to know if this will work on a buttercream covered cake. Please let us know soon – I need to get back to the bride. Thanks again.
Hi Amwoods—I’m sorry, I haven’t tried this on buttercream…but my feeling is that it would be too risky. I wouldn’t trust the buttercream to hold the weight of the fondant.
hi Melissa,
thank you for this awesome tutorial! I had a cake tasting with a lovely couple yesterday and they chose this design for their wedding cake. they went with a five tier cake! because i will be attending the wedding, i’d like to have the cake ready the night before. my question is should i refrigerate fondant covered cake? i will be making my own fondant (Michelle Foster Fondant) thank you in advance!!
Hi Cecilia–I haven’t experimented with refrigerating Michelle Foster’s fondant–I would probably just leave it at room temp to be on the safe side, in the coolest place in your house.
Thanks for mentioning the amount of fondant that you colored in teal. I would have thought it took way more than 10oz just by looking at the pictures. It looks so full. I’m attempting a 2tier cake 10″ and 8″. I hope it looks okay, although not as tall. Each tier is about 3in tall before the fondant. (from Bake Me Joy)
Could you tell me where you got the vinyl mat? I’ve been searching but can only find “the mat” for rolling fondant.
Thanks!
Hi Robyn–I really like “The Mat”– I actually demonstrate using it in our recent monster truck video and I use it all the time for keeping fondant or gum paste from drying out while I’m working on a cake. Before buying it, I used just a vinyl mat that we bought at the fabric store. You don’t get the official “food safe” stamp of approval as with “The Mat” though. The Mat is a little thicker too.–
In the video, it looks like I’m using a piece of vinyl but for no other reason than it was the first thing that I grabbed ;0)
Great tutorial
How many layers of cake were in each tier? Each tier looks nice and tall.
Hi Michaela, each tier is 4 inches tall. Two cake layers per tier.
Hi Melissa and Bebe,
I was wondering how you travel with a tall cake if it has to be assembled before the event? Do you make your own cake box or buy one specifically for tall cakes? Where in the car is the best place to put it? Do you do anything differently when it’s buttercream vs fondant? Thank you so much!
Hello Maggie!
There are differing opinions on traveling with fully assembled cakes. For me personally, I’ve traveled with 2 tiered cakes with no problems, but if it is 3 tiers or more, I would assemble on site. If assembling on site is out of the question, I would look into a support system (I like SPS). –
For buttercream frosted cakes, I like to refrigerate my tiers when possible until it is time to travel. This helps to keep everything nice and firm. –
For fondant covered cakes, keeping in a cool room in your house is fine. Depending on the fondant that you are using (and humidity level in your fridge), you may also be fine to refrigerate your fondant covered cakes. I refrigerate mine with no problem, and usually use Liz Marek’s recipe (Wilton/MMF) or Satin Ice.
You’ll want to travel with your cake on a completely level surface in your car (not in the seat), and rubber textured shelf liner works as a great non-slip surface beneath the cake. You can buy boxes specifically for tiered cakes, or you can rig up a bakery box with the top either taped up at an angle or cut off completely. You can also find large moving boxes at places like Lowes or Home Depot which can be rigged for transporting. Just use an x-acto to slice down one of the sides of the box that you can easily open the side to slide the cake into the box, and then tape it closed.
Hope this helps!
It does! Thank you so much for your quick response. Th guys are amazing!
I love this cake. I can’t wait to try this but you know, I’m team buttercream. I’m really going to push to do this one though. :) I think I may have to do a dummy cake just to play with this design for fun!