Easy Bow Tutorial

Finally, as promised, my bow tutorial.
Just in time for all those holiday package cakes.

Since my last post I finally went out and bought a pasta roller.
Why didn't I do that sooner ?
Now all of my fondant is a perfect thickness and oh so easy to roll out.
This only works for rolling fondant for accents , not to cover cakes but it's amazing how much time and fondant it saves me.
Buy one...seriously.

So, to make the bow I start with a mix of fondant and gumpaste. You will want almost an even mix so this bow will dry fast and firm.

Roll out the fondant.

I use my ribbon cutter to cut the strips but for years I didn't have one of those either and I just used a knife.
Cut the fondant into a long strip.
The wider the strip the taller the bow and the longer the strip the wider the bow.

To form the bow you can use rolled up paper towels or the tubes from inside the paper towel roll.

Bring each end of the fondant strip to meet in the middle.

Pinch in the center.

Roll out a small piece of fondant and cut into a strip. ( This does not have to be perfect, mine is pretty pathetic and it still worked. )

Pleat it .

Wrap around the middle of the bow. You can push around the pleats and position them where you would like.

Let this dry at least 24 hours and remove your loop formers.

Let dry a few hours more and place on your cake.
I attach with a dab of melted white chocolate.

If you would like to add ribbon tails you will need 2 more strips.
Angle the bottom and pinch to pleat the top.

 I set mine to dry a few minutes with some waves in them.

You can either attach them to the back of the bow or to the cake and then set the bow in place over top of them. ( that is how I  prefer to do it )

They are my favorite accent. I use large bows as cake toppers, medium bows on the sides of cakes, and small ones as trim accents.

You can alter the size, shape, add zebra stripes or polka dots, these are very versatile and easy.