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
June 15th, 2007 at 12:54 pm
Another great tutorial!
June 15th, 2007 at 1:30 pm
Thank you my friend:)
June 16th, 2007 at 3:07 pm
Hi Louise
Thanks so much for posting how to make it !
I will try it myself one of these days.
thanks
andrea kopp
June 16th, 2007 at 3:34 pm
Your welcome Andrea.
If you have any question, you can always mail me.
Louise
October 9th, 2007 at 6:52 pm
wow! i had always wondered how its done! now that i have discovered your site, am sure i will keep ocming back!
April 30th, 2008 at 6:58 pm
wow awesome! thanks for that tutorial!
April 30th, 2008 at 11:33 pm
Alsia: Your welcome
May 1st, 2008 at 4:47 am
Your website is fantastic! I am an amatuer cake decorator, but I love to learn new techniques.
Can I make this bow using rolled fondant?
September 6th, 2008 at 5:43 am
your amazing! I have two questions. The first it kind of stupid but.. can you eat these? And my second question is how can you create such a beautiful cake and have the heart to eat it? I don’t think I could sit and watch people eat my creation.
I love your site.. very inspiring
September 14th, 2008 at 10:09 pm
MoDog: yes you use rolled fondant for this. But you can also mix 50/50 of rolled fondant and gum paste mixed together.
Denise: Well as you will need this to dry to get this look I am not sure that it would be that nice to chew on. I remove my bows from the cakes before it is cut into portions.
September 16th, 2008 at 4:31 pm
how wide are the bow ribbons cut into 3″ pieces?
September 23rd, 2008 at 10:17 pm
Nornah: I dont use any specific wide. I just cut the bow in the size I want it to be. But 3″ sounds ok.
October 23rd, 2008 at 8:44 pm
OMG! I love your tutorials they are great and since I am a newbie at this cake decorating world this helps alot…Thanks
October 26th, 2008 at 6:17 pm
Dee: Only glad to help fellow cake friends.