Cake Hack: All-thread

Cake Hack: All-thread

In a few weeks I'll be delivering a baby shower cake to my cousin.  To match her theme, I wanted a tool that could make a texture similar to ribbed ribbon.   When I was a teenager, I used to work at Joann Fabrics ... moms would come in and buy ribbed ribbon in all kinds of sizes and colors for hair bows (typically for cheerleaders ... I don't know what that was about though).  That's what I want my next loopy bow to look like.

The first thing that came to mind was the ribbed / smocking rolling pin by PME:

$9 shipping for that???  Really?  I couldn't find any online store that could get it to me for less than $27 total.  I posted a facebook message to my cake club to see if I could borrow someone's.  The club president reminded me of a trick that was demonstrated at one of our meetings a while back: use all-thread.

All-thread is a steel rod that is threaded (like screws) down the entire length of the rod.  I'm not sure what it's supposed to be used for, but I found a section for it at my local Ace Hardware store.  There are different lengths and thicknesses (again, like screws).  After some pondering, I decided to get the 1/2" x 1' rod for $2.70 ... that's 1/10th of the cost of the PME pin.

I rolled out some fondant and then rolled the rod over it.  Remember, the rod is threaded ... not ribbed ... so it does move towards one side as you continue to roll.  The 1' length was plenty of room for what I was testing on.  This is pretty much exactly what I wanted!  I'm thrilled and can't wait to make my loopy bow.

NOTE:  This product has not been declared food-safe.  Use at your own risk.