When you use a sugar ribbon at the base of cake tiers, you have the choice of using fondant, gumpaste or chocolate clay. I personally like chocolate clay because it’s so malleable.
Of course, it’s better used in cooler weather, not in the summer when it will melt.
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Sugar ribbons aren’t difficult, all it takes is a ruler and a pizza cutter or a knife to make an even one.
If you use chocolate clay you can roll it out, cut it, then let it cool off and stiffen up a little so that it won’t stretch while it’s being put on the cake.
To seam the corners on a square cake, or the join on a round one, use a dogbone tool to smooth the edges together.
If the chocolate is very cold you might have to hold the ends between your fingers for a minute to warm it up, then you’ll be able to rub the chocolate so that it melds together.
The end result will be a continuous ribbon without a seam.
It’s easier to do this to chocolate clay than it is to do in fondant, but if you use some crisco and work carefully at it, you can usually smooth out fondant the same way.
It’s generally a more noticeable join, though.
Another way to get the seamless look would be to wrap a long ribbon around the base of the tier, using only one seam.
To do that, you can cut out a really long ribbon and roll it up, or put it on a long strip of waxed paper to support it (it would have to be a really long piece of paper.)
Then apply it to the cake and pinch the corners to make them square, and meld the seam together.
I’ve done this with round cakes too, but the danger of rolling it up is that it can develop cracks when it’s bent, especially if you’re using modeling chocolate and it’s cold.
Fondant doesn’t crack as easily, so if you want to use the roll-it-up method that might be the best choice if you want to do one long strip.
You’ll lose the ability to hide the seam as easily, but you can always cover it with flowers or another decoration.
