raveled bows

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thE WAY FABRIC LAYS NATURALLY,even when it’s manually tied into bows, can be incredibly graceful. This cake is my attempt to re-create this effect in sugar, with thinly rolled and cut fondant and sugar paste ribbons applied in the same manner as a ballerina’s pointe shoes are laced.

The cake shown is covered with a smooth coat of icing, but the same technique could also be used on a fondant-covered cake. When working with iced cakes, it is important that they are well refrigerated before the decorations are applied.

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To RE-CREATE THIS DESIGN, cut ribbons in a few varying widths out of thinly rolled fondant, then trim each ribbon to the length of the cake’s circumference (depending on how big a piece of fondant you roll initially, you may need to piece together multiple ribbons to encircle the cake). Use a paintbrush to lightly dab each ribbon’s end with a mixture of equal parts water and corn syrup and fold the corners inwards to make tapered ends; this is where the bows will be placed. Press the fondant lightly to the icing to adhere all around the tiers, crisscrossing ribbons of different widths to allow the ends to meet at different points.

The bows and tails are made from sugar paste in order to give the shapes more body and make them appear draped without breaking. As you make the bows and tails, apply them to the cake right away (without letting them dry first) so that they fall naturally. Place the bows where each pair of tapered ribbon ends meet; the cake here has bows not only at the front of the cake, but also around the sides and back as well. This creates depth within the layers.

To MAKE THE BOWS AND RIBBON TAILS, thinly roll out sugar paste and cut out strips in the same varying widths as the ribbons. For each bow, make a loop with the sugar paste strip and glue the ends in the center with corn syrup–water mixture, then lightly pinch the center. Wrap another piece of the same width around the center of the loop, affix it with corn syrup mixture, and trim the ends. For the tails, cut a sugar paste strip crosswise into two uneven pieces and trim the ends as desired. On the cake shown, they are cut in different styles, some on the diagonal and some with forked ends. Taper the untrimmed edges as you did for the fondant ribbons. First adhere the tapered edge of the tails onto the tapered ends of the ribbons, and then attach the bow on top of the tails, using corn syrup–water mixture as glue and matching each set of bow and tails to a ribbon of the same width. Alternate applying the bows and tails around the cake so that they can overlap one another.