I love sugar bows on cakes. I think it gives the cake a very feminine look and it is a necessity on beautiful gift cakes. So in this tutorial I will try to show you how to make a sugar bow. If you have not tried it before start by making a “medium large” sugar bow instead of a very small one. You can ad shimmer dust to your bow just by brushing shimmer on to the stripes before pleating and assembling the sugar bow.

Note: I find it best to use a mix consisting of 50% sugar paste and 50% flower paste. That way you will get a smoothe and flexible paste to work with.

This is what I use:
50/50 Sugar paste/flower paste
Rolling pin
Small spatular
Tylo glue
Artist brush
Polyesterfibre
2 sheets of kitchen roll
Cornstarch for dusting
1 Plastic bag
A pair of scissors

Step 1:
Take the plastic bag and cut up one of the sides.

Step 2:
Take some of the polyesterfibre and warp it in the kitchen roll:

Step 3:
Dust with cornstarch and roll out the paste thinly. Take the spatular and cut two long stripes and one short stripe. Place the three pieces in the plastic bag. To keep them for drying out.

Step 4:
Take one of the long stripes and make pleats in both ends. Brush the ends with tylo glue. Take the polyester roll and fold the ends together.

Step 5:
Gently press the ends. Set a side and repeat with the other long stripe.

Step 6:
Trim the ends so they have clean cuts. Brush with tylo glue and put them together.

Step 7:
Take the small stripe and make pleats. Brush the middle of the sugar bow with tylo glue.

Step 8:
Take the short stripe (maybe you need to cut it shorter) and wrap the ends around the middle of the sugar bow.

Step 9:
Now leave the sugar bow to dry. Note: If you want the sugar bow to stand up. You will do that now before it dries to much.

Step 10:
For the tails, roll out the excess paste and cut two long stripes.

Step 11:
Make pleates and cut the end. Place them on top of each other and brush with tylo glue and attache the sugar bow on top. Remove the polyester rolls when the bow is almost dry. Note: I find it best to cut out the tails just before they are applied to the cake. That way they are smoother and more flexible.

Happy Caking

Louise