How to cover a cake with horizontal fondant stripes.

I had to decorate a cake with horizontal stripes. How hard can it be? That's the motto in our house. How hard can it be? It applies to everything, including plumbing, extensive renovations and child birth. It turns out some things are actually very hard (particularly child birth) but we still live with the arrogant notion that we can do anything. So at 9.30pm, the night before the cake was due, I googled "how to put horizontal fondant stripes on a cake" assuming that there would be multiple Youtube instructions and blogs about it. Results: nothing. Oh dear. What's a girl to do?

The problem with horizontal stripes is that they can end up very wobbly, very easily. How do you ensure they are straight? You need a system. Or a tool. So I invented my own method, and here I will discuss it. If anyone has a better way of doing it, then please tell me.

Soooooooo...... here is a cake with plane fondant, far from perfect, but that's what decorations are for. Make sure your fondant has rested for a few hours before you go fiddling with it to avoid making dents.

I cut out a piece of cardboard, a little bit longer than the length of the circumference of the cake, and almost as high and then wrapped it around the cake and used stickytape to hold it in place. I was totally unprepared, but luckily I had a spare cake box which I cut up to use the cardboard.

Now, you need one of these fabulous tools, or something similar, to cut the strips of fondant so they're dead straight:



It is my new favorite tool.



When you have your strip, paint egg white around the cake just above the cardboard. Then use the cardboard as your marker to put the strip of fondant against.

When you've done one stripe then remove the cardboard and cut it so that it is shorter for the next stripe. Make sure you measure carefully and cut it straight. Then reattach the cardboard to the cake in the same way as before and repeat the process. It depends on the cake design as to how far apart the stripes go, how thick they are and how many stripes to have.

Ta daaaaaaaaa! Horizontal stripes! I might do a Blog about making the fondant stork too one day.

Katy.xx