First time I've used ready made rolling icing and put ribbon round the cake. I was horrified to find that even after several days drying oil leaks into the ribbon from the icing. Now I know why it stays soft so long. I tried using greaseproof baking paper behind the ribbon but would you believe, it leaked up from the iced board. Help!

You can pre-grease the ribbon with shortening to assure it soaks up and stains evenly.

Yep that is what I do. I just wipe the ribbon down with shortening, then wipe it again with a paper towel.

^^^ this. I like to spray mine with Pam just because it's super fast. Kind of like an if you can't beat em, join em thing!

I recently just experienced it and the easiest thing I did that worked out great was to wrap the ribbon around the cake so that it was tight (not too tight but tight enough) and overlapped the ribbon at the back and used double sided tape where it overlapped. It was for a wedding cake and held up perfectly. Some ppl use hot glue on the overlapping ribbon.good luck!