Ruffled Skirt Wedding Cake

Happy Sunday! Ok, so some of you may be looking at this and saying "It's Saturday" but due to events tomorrow I know I won't have time to post the blog and, well, it's Sunday in other parts of the world! LOL!

This week I get to share a small wedding cake that was so much fun to do that I hope to get a chance to do a larger version of it someday. This cake is enough to feed about 20 people at a small family wedding. Covered in pure white vanilla marshmallow fondant and decorated with royal icing swirls, candy pearls and sugar roses. The only non edible part of this cake is the jewel in the center of the main rose. That is a rhinestone.

For those who work with fondant or are new to fondant you will find that making a "skirt" is actually very easy to do. Just roll your fondant out, trim in an even circle and then adhere it to your cake making sure to give ruffles and folds like a real skirt would have and not smooth it down to the edge like you normally would. Now the ruffled part of the skirt is an advanced technique called frilling and you can find a tutorial on youtube how to do it. It's not really hard. Basically you roll fondant out till it is very thin, cut circles out of it, then cut a hole in the middle of the circle. Then, using a toothpick, holding it flat on the table, you roll the ruffles around the edge of the circle. When you have the entire circle ruffled then you cut it at one point and use that to add ruffles to your piece. that is how I made this ruffled skirt. I used several lines of ruffles, beginning at the bottom of the cake and moving my way up. After putting on the "over-skirt" of fondant I cut away enough to show the lace and tucked the edges under to make it look like a skirt that had been gathered up and "pinned" with a jeweled rose.

The top tier is decorated with royal icing as well in a pattern called Cornelli Lace. Someone once described it as drawing cursive lowercase r's all over the cake. I have found this easier to do on a square cake or hexagon cake than round ones just because you have well defined edges and can work in sections. But it's a relatively simple technique and always looks so beautiful on a wedding cake!

I really wanted to do this little cake to show that you can have an ornate wedding cake even if it's not 4 feet high and needing to feed 400. Even a small family wedding of 20 can have a beautiful wedding cake to top off their wedding day.

Close up of the rose

Candy pearls are one of my favorite embellishments but they do take a steady hand. I would recommend cake tweazers to help place them. But they are an inexpensive way of adding beauty and elegance to any cake. Royal icing is relatively easy to make and takes almost no time at all. The one thing you do have to remember is that it dries out very quickly so you will need to keep cleaning the tip of your piping tip and keep the extras stored in an airtight container. With a little practice, learning what consistancy works best for what you want to do with the icing, you will be able to add quick drying details to any cake. Since it does dry quickly it is perfect for painting over as well.

Next weekend brings a very special wedding cake. Have a great week!

Cat