TULLE BRIDAL RECIPES

Steps:

• Cover the cakes with marzipan and leave to dry. Cover the cakes with sugarpaste and leave to dry for one day. Secure the cakes to their boards. Gather up the icing trimmings and roll out into thin strips to cover the exposed parts of the boards, trimming off any excess. Leave to dry.

  Hail Spots

  Colour the royal icing with the ivory food coluring to match the sugarpaste. Using a piping big with a number 1 tube, pipe small dots all over the surface of each cake. When piping, use a gentle stabbing motion so the tube actually touches the cake. Keep an even pressure on the bag as you work, instead of squeezing and releasing. Leave to dry.

  Tulle

  To calculate for the pinched tulle around the base of each cake, measure across one side of each cake and multiply by six to get the circumference, then add 4 cm (1½ inches) for an overlap. Cut four strips from the length of tulle measuring 125 cm (49 inches), 105 cm (41 inches), 90 cm (35½ inches) and 72 cm (28 inches), leaving the rest for the top arrangement. Cut the 3 mm (? inch) ivory ribbon into 24 lengths of 10 cm (4 inches).

  Take the longest length of tulle for the large cake and lay it out flat. Fold the long edges into the centre to make a long cylinder. Turn it over so the ends are underneath and measure 21 cm (8½ inches) in from the left. Use your fingers to gather the tulle across its width at this point and tie a piece of ribbon around it into a double knot. Measure and tie off the tulle at five intervals, spaced 19 cm (7½ inches) apart (if your measurements differ from this use your own measurements instead). Pipe a dab of icing on one of the corners at the back of the cake.

  Position the first ribbon and tulle on the royal icing at the corner and secure with a glass-head pin. (Remove the pins when dry.) Work around the cake, securing at each corner in the same way until you get to the last corner. Place a piece of ribbon on the board (this is easier than threading the ribbon underneath and around with one hand), then overlap the ends of the tulle so that they meet at a corner and pinch the tulle together. Lift up the ends of the ribbon from behind and tie the ends around the tulle in a double knot. Trim the ends of the tulle close to the ribbon, and then trim all the ribbon ends to the same length. Repeat for the other cakes, tying ribbon at the following intervals: 16 cm (6½ inch) intervals for the 25 cm (10 inch) cake, 13 cm (5 inch) intervals for the 20 cm (8 inch) cake and 9.5 cm (3¾ inch) intervals for the 15 cm (6 inch) cake (use your own measurements if different). Add 2 cm (¾ inch) onto the first interval to allow for the overlap.

  Flower garlands

  Using a compass or round cake boards, draw four circles on a piece of paper in the following sizes: 30 cm (12 inches), 25 cm (10 inches), 20 cm (8 inches) and 11 cm (4½ inches). These will make the templates for the flower garlands.

  Commercial silk flowers either have very long stiff-wired stems or plastic floppy stems, neither of which bend very easily. To make them easier to work with, pull out the existing wire and replace it with a more pliable one. Take a piece of green wire and bend it in two, leaving a circle of wire at the bent end. Thread the two cut ends of wire into the centre of the flower and pull through: the circle of wire should stop it from going all the way through.

  Wrap green tape along the length of the stem as close to the base of the flower as possible. Re-wire the large rosebuds with 26-gauge wire, the medium rosebuds with 28-gauge wire and snipped off single ivy leaves with 28-gauge wire. The smallest rosebuds do not need re-wiring — just tape them over. You will need 40 small sprigs of gypsophila on 28-gauge wire with white floristry tape, and 30 separate ivy leaves.

  Refer to the chart (below) for the correct number of flowers per garland.

  Wire the garland for the largest cake with 20-gauge wire. Tape a few larger flowers to the wire, and then a couple of the filler flowers, ivy and gypsophila. Every so often lay the wired flowers over the 30 cm (12 inch) template and bend to follow the curve. Group the larger flowers at evenly spaced intervals. When you have completed a circle, trim the wire, leaving about 5–8 cm (2–3 inches), and tape this securely to the starting point. Repeat for the other cakes. For the 15 cm (6 inch) cake, leave about 5 cm (2 inches) of wire at the beginning and the end, then tape them together to stick out at an angle of 90° to the garland, and insert the wire into a posy holder.

  Positioning the pillars

  Measure the depth of the three largest cakes. Add 5 cm (2 inches) to the depth of the two largest cakes, and 4 cm (1½ inches) to the 20 cm (8 inch) cake, then transfer these measurements to the hidden pillars. Allow three pillars per cake. Mark a line around each pillar and follow this line when cutting, using a sawing motion, to create a level pillar.

  Lay the garlands on each cake and place the pillars inside the garlands, inserting them into the cake. Insert the smallest garland into the top cake with a posy holder. Tie the remaining tulle into a bow. Thread 28-gauge white wire through the back and fix to the garland. Trim and neaten the tulle. Trim the cake boards with the wider ivory ribbon, securing with double-sided tape.