#339_Ruffled Birthday Cake

I made this cake for a G'daughter who will be turning 12 in a couple of days.

The ruffles are made out of fondant.The white carnation flowers on top are also made out of fondant, but I've made them at my cake decorating class last year and so I thought I'd throw those in there since they also have frills.

Update: 2-19-12
For my friends on Facebook who asked me how to make the ruffles on the cake, I will try my best to explain how I did it with the help of accompanying pictures.

My sister sent me a picture of the ruffled cake a while back and I recently found the same picture on Pinterest. It took me awhile to figure out how it was done and then I finally came up with the idea on how to go about it using the technique on frilled carnation flowers which I learned in the fondant/gumpaste Cake Decorating class. Click here for a video on how to make carnation flowers.

First of all you need a fondant-covered cake ready and fondant for the ruffles.You can use the ready-to-use fondant, but I used the home made marshmallow fondant.

You also need all these tools pictured above: non-stick rolling pin, scallop cutter, brush, veining tool, sponge and dusting pouch pouch. (Gum Paste and Fondant class helps)

Roll out a piece of fondant very thinly and cut out strips using the scallop cutter. I cut the strips narrower than the size of cutter.

I cut the irregular-cut ends with pizza cutter or you can also use a pair of scissors to do that.

With the veining tool, make the frills on the scalloped edges just like you would with the carnation flowers by holding the small end of the veining tool like a pencil, press heel down at the scalloped edges and pull out to form frills. (Here's a video on how to make carnation flower, click here.)

Using a brush, wet the unruffled side with water, I attached the ruffles around the side of cake starting from the bottom then made my way to the top edge of cake.

The ruffled cakes I saw on Pinterest, the ruffles were either facing upward or drooping. I like mine to be straight out so I used these toothpicks to prop up the ruffles to stay straight out and then I removed the toothpicks when the fondant dried up and hardened. But I'm sure there's got to be an easier way to do this without using all these tooth picks tho and professional cake decorators for sure have an easier way to tackle this design.
If you find another way of doing this, please share it with me. Thanx!!