Step 1
Gather your materials: gumpaste, rolling pin, and ribbon cutter (or you could just use a knife and ruler)
Step 2
Roll out your gumpaste thin enough that you can see through it; too thin and the ruching will fold, too thick and the ruching will not be obvious
Step 3
Cut gumpaste into 2" strips
Step 4
Cut gumpaste in opposite direction, creating 2" squares
Step 5
Look at your squares lol (I'm not too sure why I made this picture a step, but I don't feel like renumbering everything now haha! sorry)
Step 6
Accordion fold one edge of your square to create a gathered look
Step 7
Accordion fold the other edge of your square to match
Step 8
Flip billow over and create a lip facing inward, this will give the billow surface area to adhere to the cake
Step 9
Flip billow over and squish ends together, then flatten to create desired shape
Step 10
Trim off excess from the edges
Step 11
If billow has flattened or if there is a crease through the entire front, push finger through back to "fluff" billow up
Step 12
Apply piping gel to the lip created in step 8
Step 13
Attach to bottom of cake, pressing edges in harder if extra adherence is required
Step 14
Continue this process until you have enough billows to make it around the entire cake, spacing a bit more or less to make all fit (for this 8" round, I used 15 billows)
Step 15
Once entire bottom row is complete, continue repeating steps 1-14 only this time adhering staggered for the second row
Step 16
Continue process until entire cake is covered (5 rows for this 4"tall cake)
Step 17
Roll out more gumpaste and using a 12B or larger tip, cut out small circles/dots
Step 18
Apply piping gel to the back of the circles/dots and apply at the billow intersections. Sit back and enjoy your billowed tier!