I've noticed some beautiful anniversary cakes with ribbon wrapped around the bottom of each layer. We are doing a 50th anniversary cake for my inlaws party next weekend and I bought some beautiful shear ribbon. My friend brought up a good point though. Does the ribbon not show grease stains from the buttercream or is there a secret to keep this from happening?

Thanks!
Mel

When a good crusting BC is used, you apply the ribbon after the icing has crusted (or "dried"). When the icing is dry, then there is no moisture or wet spot to bleed onto the ribbon. The only mar on the ribbon will be the blop of BC used to glue the two ends together in the back.

If you have to apply the ribbon to a wet icing, you could grab a handful of crisco and rub it down the length of the ribbon, pre-wetting it uniformly. Careful doing this ...... I did this on navy blue ribbon and it turned the ribbon black, so test it first.

As some added ribbon advice, I avoid using wired ribbon. I may be just bad at doing it, but the first and only time I used it, it was a disaster! I thought the ribbon would be an asset in holding the shape, but it was a major liability in that it cut into the cake. You wont' find a photo of that cake ANYWHERE in my files!!

There's been a lot of discussion on this subject in the past. Everything from - letting the grease come through, special kinds of ribbons, etc.
I had a white satin ribbon going onto pale blue. I fretted about it probably more than I needed to but . . . I cut waxed paper the width of the ribbon and used double stick tape to attach it to the ribbon. It actually gave the ribbon more stability and was very easy to attach, just little dabs of buttercream then I put a pin to hold it together until the icing set up then took the pin out.
Not sure how this would work with your ribbon but it might be worth a try.

Thanks guys. The frosting will be dry by the time we assemble it. I like the wax paper idea and may do that just for added security.

That's good to know about the wire ribbon. I never would have thought about it cutting into the cake!

I saw this idea in one of the cake decorating books. They used wired ribbon, wrapped it around a straight rolling pin to give it a twisted look, and had it around the base of the cake(without the rolling pin ofcourse) rather then sticking it against it. Looked pretty nice.