How to Make Fondant Basketweave

I wrote this tutorial more than 4 years ago, but the pictures were small and I had never linked to a lot of the products I used, so now it's updated and links are added.  The pics are still 4 years old (and not my best work), but I resized them so they're larger and I feel like they're good enough to help you learn How to Make Fondant Basketweave!

If you want more details about the Teddy Bear Picnic Cake, read this post!

The technique is much easier than it looks and comes together very quickly!  I decorated the bottom tier of the cake in less than 30 minutes! Are you ready?

Here's what you'll need:

• A prepared cake (baked, filled, frosted and covered in fondant); I used an 8" round
• Measuring tape and ruler (I much prefer a quilting ruler!!)
• Large and small rolling pins
• Fondant, in the color of your choice; I used brown Satin Ice
• The Mat - one of my favorite tools, but not necessary
• Ribbed or smocking rolling pin (optional)
• Ribbon Cutter
• Pizza wheel
• Sugar glue and paint brush

Now let's get started...

How to Make Fondant Basketweave

Step 1:

Have your cake baked, filled, frosted, covered in fondant and ready to decorate!  For this design, I used an 8" round cake covered in homemade marshmallow fondant.

Step 2:

Measure the outside diameter of your cake so you'll know how long  and tall you need to make your panel of fondant basketweave.

Step 3:

Take a large ball of brown fondant (or the color of your choice) and roll it out.  I don't recommend rolling it too thin because you'll be manipulating it a lot and you don't want it so thin that it'll tear or stretch.

You want to roll it out so that it's long and wide enough to cover your cake.  My cake was approximately 26 inches in diameter and 4 inches tall so I made sure my rolled out fondant was at least that size.

Tip:  A quilting ruler (the clear/orange ruler you see me using throughout this post) makes a perfect cake tool!  You can use them as a guide when cutting strips, ribbons, etc. and use them to easily measure large pieces of fondant.  In addition, they wash up very easily!

Step 4:

This step is optional, but I think the extra detail really gives the pattern a more genuine basket-like quality.  Use a ribbed or smocking rolling pin to lightly impress lines on the  fondant.  I used my quilting ruler as a guide to keep me going in a straight line.

Step 5:

Since my basket will be 4" tall, I decided to do 4 bands, each 1 inch tall.  I adjusted my ribbon cutter to a 1 inch width and cut the ribbons.  You could also do this with a ruler and pizza wheel.

Step 6:

Trim the strips of fondant to the width and height you need.    Leave them in place next to each other!  Those you see up top will be used also, but you want to leave the main strips that will go around the cake horizontally in place.

Step 7:

Take one (or more) of the extra strips and cut them in half lengthwise.  I did this roughly with my ribbon cutter.  They do not need to be perfect.

Once you have long thinner strips, cut them into shorter pieces slightly longer than the height of your basket.  Since my cake is 4 inches tall, I cut my pieces around 4.5 inches long.  These will be the cross pieces in the basket pattern.

Step 8:

Now we're getting to the good stuff - the actual steps for How to Make Fondant Basketweave.  To start weaving the pattern, you're going to start in the middle and pull back every other long strip of fondant.  Fold the strips over on themselves at about the halfway point.

Step 9:

Lay a short, thin strip down at the crease where you have the strips pulled back.  Then lay the long folded strips back over the top.

This post was so long - I have part 2 here.  

Happy Caking!

Rose