Welcome to the Cake Decorators Q&A
Hi slocombe
It’s not hard to do but you will end up with a join either at the front or back or in several places if you make the pleats in sections. I’ll try and explain. If you want the pleat to have one join you’ll need to roll out your fondant or gumpaste/half and half so it measures a little longer than the whole diameter of the cake. Cut a long strip measuring approximately 3″ deep or however deep you want the pleat to be. Wet the top straight edge with a little water and fold it into the middle and stick it down. Make sure the rolled top edge doesn’t squash down into a crease. It should look like folded fabric. Now there should be about 1.5 inches skirt at the bottom of the strip. Turn the whole strip over and do the same again. Attach the rolled edge of the second pleat below the first one so they overlap. Keep going until you have the depth you need or a depth which you can handle. Now comes the hard bit, you’ll need to lift your pleats and wrap them round the cake! You’ll have an overlap which will need to be cut off neatly and straighten up any distortions/ You could do this in sections like with ruffles but there will be lots of joins which can’t be hidden if left plain and will need some sort of embellishment. You may also be able to make single pleats on the cake itself and keep adding.
Hope this makes sense. Have a little go like I’m doing ( very badly!!). It’s a bit like making swags and jabots in sewing.
