Rice paper sails are pretty easy to do, and they make a dramatic design on a tiered cake.
Rice paper is different from wafer paper, so make sure that you buy the right thing! You can use wafer paper, but it won’t look as translucent when it’s dry.
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.
How to make the sails.
The basic way to make these sails is to soften them in water, and you can color the water to make the rice paper soft and pliable.
When they dry, they’ll keep the shape that they were dried in, so you can position them in different shapes to have look a certain way.
To make a rice paper sail cascade on a cake, start by softening the rice paper in a pan of warm or hot water, and drying them in fan shapes on a silicone mat.
You can also drape the soft rice paper over a drinking glass to create different shapes, but make sure that whatever you use for a form has a smooth surface that the rice paper won’t stick to when it’s dry.
To create an ombre effect, you’ll need to start with the lightest color and darken the water each time you dip a new set of rice paper into it.
That will give you a graduated color effect and you’ll end up with a set of rice paper sails that start lighter, then end up darker that you can arrange in an ombre effect.
I used cake dummies to display the finished sails…Read an article about cake dummies here.
Start with water and food coloring.
Click here for an article showing ombre wedding cake ideas.
Dry the paper into shape.
Dry the rice paper on a silicone mat.
Arrange the sails on the cake.
Place the sails on the cake, starting at the bottom of the cake and continuing up the side of the cake to the lighter colors.
You might need to break off pieces of the rice paper sails to fit against each other and on the cake.
You can do this with wafer paper, but you should NOT dip the sheet in water the same way, because rice paper and wafer paper are not the same and won’t act the same! Use a conditioner or vodka to soften the sails and shape them before drying.
Click here to read an article about refrigerating rice paper sails.
Wafer paper supplies list.
Wafer paper supply list:
Shop for materials to make wafer paper flowers on Amazon (#ad):
- Wafer paper, white or colored
- Silicone flower center molds
- Petal veiners
- Petal dust
- Floral wire
- Tylose glue
- Fluffy paintbrushes
- Flower former
- Craft scissors
- Liquid Food Coloring
- Food-grade glycerin to make wafer paper conditioner
- Corn starch
- Flower paper punches
- Steamer to shape wafer paper
