Making a Fondant Looped Bow

I previously gave a lesson on how to construct the black and white geometric cake, and now I’m going to teach you how to make the fondant looped ribbon that I added to that cake. I like coming up with unique ways to decorate my cakes that aren’t simply flower arrangements or bows.

You should begin working on this bow ahead of time since the loops must totally dry and harden up before being used.

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Supplies You’ll Need:

• Fondant rouge (or the color of your choice)
• Fondant noir
• Red Luster Dust that is edible
• Pizza cutter in miniature (for cutting the fondant strips)
• For your mixer, use a small fondant roller or pasta roller attachment.
• Vodka or lemon extract
• Melts of red candy (or the color that matches your fondant color)
• The jewel mold ( I used this one, but just choose your fancy)

Making the Loops:

Roll out your red fondant using your little fondant roller or pasta machine. Spread it out thinly, but not as thinly as you would for gumpaste flowers (about a 2 on the pasta roller).

Arrange your strips on the work surface. Cut them into rectangles. You’ll want them in a variety of sizes so you have options when putting the bow together later. For the back, I cut some larger, thicker pieces that were about four to five inches long and two and a half inches broad. Make some smaller and skinnier strips for the bow’s center layer. It makes no difference whether the ends are trimmed straight. You’re going to sever their limbs.

Place a rolled-up tissue or paper towel in the center of your fondant strip. Dab some water on one end, then wrap the other end around the paper towel and tie the ends together. Indeed, I put a lot of cornstarch and powdered sugar on my surface to keep my loops from sticking together.

Cut the ends into a V using a tiny pizza cutter or a knife.

If you like, you may remove any pointed portions.

You’ll need four large loops for the exterior and three little loops for the interior, but you’ll need more. Some of them may break when you’re putting the bow together, and you’ll want a variety of sizes to give you additional alternatives.

When you’ve finished all of your bows, place the loops on a baking board coated with cornstarch to dry. I dried mine for many days. I wanted them to be fully dry and solid.

After they’re nice and hard, use a dry brush to remove all of the cornstarch.

Paint one side of your loops with a mixture of luster dust and lemon essence. By the time you finish painting all of the loops, they will be dry, and you can begin painting the other sides.

So I went ahead and painted the insides of the loops. The shimmer will be seen from every angle when you gaze at the bow. Put them aside to dry completely (actually youre just waiting for the lemon extract to evaporate). That will probably take five to 10 minutes.

Assembling the Bow:

Make a foundation for your loops to adhere to. Just roll your red fondant into a ball. Place it on your workspace (sprinkle your work surface with cornstarch so it doesnt stick). Now, hammer your ball down to form a disk.

Oh, and when you handle your bow loops, you’ll get luster dust glitter all over your hands, and it’ll stick to pretty much anything else you touch, which is why my disk is shiny.

Now, heat your red candy melts until they are completely melted. I prefer to use the same color as my bow since you may be able to see it after the assembly.

Make your bow by arranging your loops. Determine which loops will go where. I intended to make five for the background petals, but they didn’t quite fit. Just move them around to find what works best for you. Aren’t you happy you created more loops now?

After you’ve decided where you want each loop to go, start gluing it to the fondant disk using sugar melts. Just dab melted candy melts over the back of each loop and adhere to the disk.

Fold a piece of paper towel and tuck it under the outside of the loop to keep the huge bows in place until the candy hardens.

Place them in the fridge after the initial layer to allow the candy melts to set up.

Attach your top layer after it’s solid. If some of the candy melts drip out as you connect the petals, just dab it up with a brush. It’s not a big deal since we’re using the same color candy melts as the fondant.

Place it in the fridge one more time to let the candy melts to harden up. After everything is secure, you may add the gem in the center.

Using your jewel mold and black fondant (or a color of your choosing), create the gem for the middle of the bow. I utilized the bottom and center mold sections, then used water to adhere the tiny gem to the larger one.

With a dab of water, you can then connect it to the centre of your bow. To liven it up, I sprinkled it with edible black sparkling dust.

Attaching the looped bow to your cake:

Since this bow is rather hefty and has a flattened back, it cannot be attached directly to the cake. You’ll need to construct a foundation to connect it to.

Use fondant to do this. Bring your bow up to your cake and choose where and at what angle you want to attach it. You’ll have a back to this cake, but that’s alright. If the rear of the cake will not be visible, you may either add a few loops to hide where the bow is fastened, or leave it as is.

I needed to tilt my bow up quite a little, so I inserted a skewer as a type of bow back support. That may have been a bit excessive since I believe the following step would have sufficed, but I don’t like to take risks.

Then, take some candy melts (I chose white in this case) and wrap them around your skewer.

Roll some fondant (I used white) into a ball and press it down and around the skewer. You’re currently constructing the bow’s back rest. Then stir in some melted candy melts. Is the red luster dust visible? It goes everywhere, as I already said.

Attach your bow to it and move it around until you’ve found the optimal angle.

At this stage, you may smooth the sides of your fondant ball, or you can leave it as is if no one will be looking at the rear of the cake.

That’s all! You’ve created a lovely glittery looped bow! This bow would be wonderful in hot pink or perhaps shiny black!

It’s now your time to try out the looped bow and let me know how it goes!

Just click here to see the instructions for this geometric cake.

As usual, if you have any questions, please send me an email. I’d be delighted to hear from you.

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