Making pretty wedding cakes with fondant swags and drapes designed to look like fabric is a classic wedding cake decorating technique. People have started referring to these designs as curtain cakes like it’s a new thing, but this kind of design has been around since the beginning of cake decorating. Romantic and elegant, fondant drapes and swags give wedding cakes a classic look. These design ideas will give you ideas for your baker to create a beautiful cake for your wedding day.
You can also do fondant swags or make loops using a clay extruder. Or you can use candy clay and fondant mixes to create a flexible rolled icing that you can place on a cake in irregular patterns.
There are a lot of ways to do this kind of easy fondant curtain or drape technique, and these are some examples of the draping on some tiered cakes that I made.
This article includes affiliate links that will pay a commission if they’re used to purchase something. As an Amazon associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.
Classic fondant drapes wedding cake.
This drape wedding cake has evenly-spaced swags that were made by putting the fondant onto wooden dowels to shape them. It’s a classic look that’s simple to accomplish, and you can see how to do it in this article: How To Drape Fondant Like Fabric
Flowers with fondant curtain swags.
This peach-colored cake had fondant swags and flowers on the tiers. These were made with a simple technique using dowels to get the ridges on the swags. You can read how to do that here: Fondant swag technique
Black fondant draping.
This square wedding cake had black fondant draping and pink gumpaste calla lilies in each tier. These drapes were flat pieces of fondant that were gathered a little bit to give them some dimension, but they weren’t as regular as the white drapes on the previous cake. This is more of a scarf-type drape, not a swag.
Candy clay draping with roses.
This was another scarf drape, and it had candy clay roses on it. Attaching chocolate flowers to a piece of fondant is a good way to create a cascade on a tiered wedding cake, and you can incorporate the wedding colors easily this way. This wedding cake was covered with buttercream, but the fondant drape made it easy to stick the flowers to it.
Heavy drapes and purple calla lilies.
This buttercream cake had fondant drapes and purple gumpaste calla lilies, with a small snail trail piped border at the bast of the tiers.
Minimalist curtain cake.
This all-white draped fondant cake was a minimalist take on the curtain cake drape design. The drape was made from a chocolate fondant mix to give it some extra stretch.
Four tier cake with fondant drapes.
This four tiered cake had fondant drapes and purple gumpaste hydrangeas in large groupings, plus a piped monogram and borders.
Drapes and gumpaste lilies wedding cake.
This pretty white cake had draped fondant and gum paste calla lilies with piped royal icing dots and gum paste brooches.
White chocolate fabric draping and roses.
This extravagant drape and swag cake was completely covered with white chocolate clay draping and white chocolate roses. The chocolate drapes were made by rolling out flat pieces of the modeling chocolate and bunching them up, then placing them at random on the cake tiers.
Ivory drapes and fresh flowers.
This three-tiered wedding cake had ivory fondant drapes and fresh flowers including roses and orchids.
Pink ombre ruffled curtain drapes.
This cake had a ruffly version of curtain draping with a pink ombre effect and piped lace on the buttercream tiers. There were also white gumpaste hydrangeas on the top of the cake. This design was based on the bride’s wedding dress.
Fondant and royal icing loopy swags.
This wedding cake had a combination of royal icing loops and fondant swags to create a loopy bow and fabric swag look. The tiers were a petal shape, so each set of swags fit on the rounded edge of one of the petal shapes.
Fondant loop swags and bows.
Not all swags have to be rolled-out fondant…This four-tiered wedding cake had fondant string swags on it. I made the loops for the little bows out of fondant that I dried ahead of time, then assembled into bows when I put the cake together. I made the strings and loops by pressing the fondant through a clay extruder since they’re usually made to be stronger than the fondant extruders I’ve used.
Wide fondant ribbon wrap.
These fondant ribbons were a simple drape on the sides of a wedding cake. The matching ribbon around the top tier gave it the look of being a long ribbon wrapped around the cake.
Chocolate ribbon drape with gumpaste flowers.
This chocolate drape was chocolate fondant and was made from a few pieces that were placed on the cake tiers, then covered with gumpaste flowers.
Silver and gold fondant ribbons.
This simple yet elegant wedding cake had a double barrel tier with metallic ribbons made from fondant and gumpaste, and a gumpaste bow on the top tier.
Candy clay tartan draped wedding cake.
This Irish-themed wedding cake had tartan candy clay draping to represent the bride’s and groom’s family tartans. The patterns were made with food coloring and colored candy clay laid out in the pattern and pressed into the base fabric. You can read about how to make it here: How To Make Plaid And Tartan Using Patterned Pastes For Cakes
Related articles:
