You will need: 16 x 16-cm lengths of thin blue ribbon

1. Begin by dyeing your sugarpaste royal blue. Cover your mini-cakes in buttercream and then the sugarpaste, using the same technique as we used in The Art of Covering Up (see below). You may find this a little fiddly at first as smaller cakes require more nimble fingers than larger ones! Finish each cake with the blue ribbon.
2. Take a selection of your larger sugar diamonds and dragées and press each one firmly into the sugarpaste on top of your mini cake. You will need to do this just after you have covered your mini cakes, while the sugarpaste is still soft. Be decisive with each diamond and dragée that you add and push them in firmly. You are relying on the sugarpaste itself to hold each piece in place – if you wiggle the pieces around as you add them, they will fall off!
3. Create a cascade of tiny edible jewels by continuing to add your smaller pieces as if they were falling down the sides of your mini cakes. Add fewer details as you work down the sides and stop just short of the bottom of each mini cake.