Buttercream & Attaching Ribbon
Decorating By trishalynn0708 Updated 12 Dec 2012 , 9:50pm by bittersweety
I do all my cakes in buttercream normally and sometime's I will add fondant accents to it... I have a 3 tiered wedding cake coming up that I would like to add ribbon to the bottom of... I have a few question's...
1. Won't the grease from my buttercream soak through the ribbon and like stain it?
2. How do I attach the ribbon in the back to make it stick?
Any feedback on buttercream cakes with ribbon is greatly appreciated!! Thank you!
I did a couple of buttercream wedding cakes last year that used ribbon as a bottom border. I followed the advice I found here in the forums, and it came out fine 
.
First, I sprayed my ribbon with no-stick spray front and back. This saturated the ribbon, so that it was basically already greasy from the spray and wouldn't discolor when it came into contact with the buttercream. But, the spray darkened my ribbon a bit, so you may want to go with a ribbon that's a little lighter than the actual color you want.
If I'm remembering correctly, I attached the ribbon with a little bit of piping gel in just a few places.
HTH!
all of my cake requiring ribbon have been on ABC, so i didn't have the issue of greasing through because the frosting is already crusted/crystalized. I have put the ribbon up against the cake, but just so that it lays next to the cake-no taughtness. I use large stainless straight pins all lined up in the the back with the top layer of the ribbon folded under where the pin is. When I deliver the cake I point the pins out to the banquet captain/cake cutter and tell them to immediately discard the pins and set aside the ribbon.
i haven't had a request for a ribbon on an SMBC cake. I'd much prefer to do a design without a ribbon. I'll keep the tape idea on hand if i do get a request for that.
Yes, it will absorb the grease. What I do is get ribbon a shade lighter, then wipe it down with shortening. This prevents the dye from leaching out onto the cake and it also soaks it evenly (because the BC WILL soak through the ribbon). Then I just wipe the ribbon down with a paper towel and wrap it around the cake. Easy.
I made a wedding cake last weekend with satin ribbons and had the same concerns. I backed my ribbon with packing tape and trimmed the edges so that it didn't show. I applied it and glued the ends together with melted candy melts. Just a tiny dab works great. It worked wonderfully and nothing for anyone to have to remember to remove or concerns about swallowing pins. Be sure you test your ribbon material in advance - depending on what they are made of, they may not show any grease spots at all. The satin ones are really the most troublesome with absorbing the bc grease, and they will absorb it even after your bc is crusted. .
I learned a lesson just a couple of weeks ago. I back my fabric ribbon with wax paper that is cut to size and attached with double-sided tape. I then wrap the tier with the long cut of ribbon, and adhere it to the cake with dots of buttercream. However, this was the first time I'd ever had bleeding happen from below. Basically the ribbon was touching the tier below, so it bled upward. I just posted a picture so you can see what happened.
http://cakecentral.com/gallery/2346573/oil-bleeding-into-fabric-ribbon
So if bleeding is going to be an issue, just be sure you watch your ribbon bottoms too. Also, I've used a stiffer ribbon in the past that didn't have any bleeding. It's more of a craft ribbon I guess and is probably made of different fibers than the fabric ribbons.
Great info.
OT, just remembered a cake I did that was placed in a corner in front of a window (on a Texas beach).
The BC started to slide so i moved the ribbon up to the middle.
Looked wonky, but saved the day, lol.
I've always had trouble trying to back a ribbon, cause it takes a long time, and it ended up being not totally straight, so when I attempted to wrap the cake, it wouldn't line up correctly. I think it's easier to coat with shortening, and just warn the customer that it will come out darker. (You can do a sample beforehand.)
I just did a square wedding cake with ribbon around the bottom of each layer. It was hard work that's for sure but it did turn out beautiful. What I learned was a very valuable lesson. I made a 2" platform for the cake using styrofoam, wrapping ribbon around and embellishing the corners. I added a piece of styrofoam the width of the ribbon and attached the ribbon to that. I should have added a piece of styrofoam between each cake board and separator plate to attach the ribbon because it sure would have made things A LOT easier and I mean A LOT. Trying to get ribbon to stick to buttercream was next to impossible and then the stick pins wouldn't keep it in place for any length of time. It took four hands but we got it done. As I said, it turned out great but next time, I'm using styrofoam -- it's light, added height and gave the ribbon (at least on the bottom layer) a solid sturdy foundation.
AI see this is a old post but I want to buy this bling ribbon to put on a cake I would use the gumpaste glue method they show in the video on bc or fondant....its so pretty http://www.caljavaonline.com
AReading up on this I feel the best way is to buy your ribbon lighter than what you want and coat both sides with shortening than rubbing excess off with a paper towel...than its already all greesed up and you shouldn't have to worry about greese getting onto the ribbon
AI cut a strip of parchment paper the same width as the ribbon and put it between the ribbon and the cake. Works like a charm
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