Hi all!

    I have a bride who wants her cake board wrapped in burlap like in this picture.  How do you go about this without have pieces of burlap in the icing?  I just know that burlap leaves lots of specks on things and the last thing I want is to have it in the icing.  Any suggestions would be appreciated! 

Thanks,

Alison

There's no way to get that exact look without the bottom layer getting to be quite messy. There are solutions

For me, if it's a high end wedding cake, I would recommend making the bottom tier a dummy cake.  Then you plunk your clean cake on top of that, and you are good to go.  The cake will look bigger and cost a bit more, but it will be a clean cake.

And the advantage is that you can do the dummy and board ahead of time.

My nephew just got married and they had polyester burlap table cloths that they rented.  Try googling polyester burlap.  It looked just like burlap, I was very surprised.

Oh ugh, that's disgusting, especially the burlap flowers right on the cake.

If you can find the synthetic burlap do that, I'd never heard of it but that's an excellent idea. I second the idea of the dummy tier, too.

There's also a texture mat that you cen get in the clay section of craft stores that looks like woven burlap, so you could make gumpaste have that texture if you want to do the flowers out of that.

Hi alimali. What is your business name? We are close enough to walk to, I am in Burlington ;-)

I have been told that they are producing "burlap" from linen.  Haven't found any yet.  But I would not use plain old burlap anywhere near a cake!
 

You can try making them and then covering them in modge podge which will hold up any threads that will escape and seal them in :)

Worth a try :)

http://www.houzz.com/ideabooks/2850287/list/Surprise-Contender--Burlap-for-Accessories

Problem: The edges fray.
Solution: Occasionally frayed edges add to the character of a project, but maybe a clean edge is more your style. A seam sealant or fray check can help. Coat 1 or 2 inches of the burlap edge in the sealant and let it dry before handling. A more effective technique is to sew a zigzag stitch along the edge of the material. Use regular tension in your sewing machine and a thread similar in color to the burlap to keep the stitch concealed.

I made a flower for an Etsy customer that looked like burlap...The texture mat I mentioned would work better than the one that I used here, but it looked good when she put it all together on the cake. http://acaketorememberva.blogspot.com/2013/04/when-trends-collide-burlap-and-giant.html

costumeczar-that is a really good flower! I can see where it would be hard to tell the difference.

I could see using a combination of the burlap texture mat and the techniques for creating fabric-like movement on the cake board to get the feeling of burlap. If you cannot find the fake-burlap, I might try the fondant burlap, although I am not sure how that might affect your price.

A

A

*Do you mean Mod Podge?

I used the mat that (I think) costumeczar is referring to on the ribbon in this picture. I think in the right color and with the edges frayed, it would look like burlap. It's what I would do to create the cake in the OP.

http://cakecentral.com/g/i/2974931/a/3332523/silver-and-white-wedding/

that looks like the same one. It looks more like a loosely woven piece of fabric than the one I used in the tutorial blog post.

Of course, there is always the sugar veil mat that looks like burlap... For a high end wedding, for sure. Just to board would cost them $100, if I did it. Here it is in a store http://www.flourconfections.com/sugarveil-woven-mat-p-4176.html and a thread about it here http://cakecentral.com/t/751831/sugarveil-burlap-and-needlepoint