Recently, I've taken up a new hobby...cake decorating! I think it's so much fun learning how to work with buttercream, fondant, and gum paste, and I've learned quite a few new tricks. Though my cakes aren't to the level of the professionals, I find it fun to make cakes for my friends and family. This time, I was making a birthday cake for my mother-in-law, and I decided to try something new and do my own thing when making the fondant / gum paste flowers. I was looking to make flowers that were ruffled and had petals, so I got out my supplies and tried something new! Here's what I came up with:
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| Finished Flowers |
To get started, here's what you'll need:
- Fondant (I used store-bought)
- Gum-paste (also store-bought)
- Shortening (not shown)
- Water (not shown)
- Fondant roller
- Flower cutters in various sizes
- Flower "cups" to shape the flowers
- Flower wave form (or additional cups)
- Buttercream icing in a bag...I used Wilton tip 3
- Thin foam pad
- Paintbrush
- Stick tool
- Ball tool
- Plastic wrap (not shown)
- Damp washcloth
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| Supplies |
I started by creating a 50/50 mixture of fondant and gum paste. Then I rolled the mixture out on a slightly greased surface (greased with shortening) to a thickness of slightly thinner than 1/8". I then cut of several flower shapes using the various size cutters. The largest flowers shown in the photo at the top of this post used one of each size flower. How many you use of each size is totally up to you! It all depends on how many layers you would like in each flower and what sizes you're looking to add to your cake.
After cutting out all of the various size flowers, I wrapped the excess fondant / gum paste in plastic wrap and stored in a sealed storage container to prevent drying out. Make sure it's wrapped very well! I also placed all of the cut-out flowers under a piece of plastic wrap and placed the damp washcloth on top of the plastic wrap to prevent them from drying out. Make sure that there is a layer of plastic wrap between the damp washcloth and the cut-outs so that the cut-outs don't come in contact with the water.
Starting with one of the largest cut-outs, I placed it on the thin piece of foam. I then used the ball tool to ruffle the edges of the flower.
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| Ruffle edges of petals using ball tool |
After ruffling the edges with the ball tool, I then used the round edge of the stick tool and pressed it into the flower petals, rolling it back and forth to create additional ruffles further into the flower. I did this the whole way around the flower.
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| Create additional ruffles using the stick tool |
After ruffling the flower cut-out, I placed it in a flower cup and let it dry a bit. I used the pointy end of the stick tool to try to shape the petals. I repeated this process for all of the flower cut-outs, except for the
smallest cut-outs! For those, I did something slightly different, which
is explained next.
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| Drying the flowers in flower cups |
While the larger flowers were drying, I began to work with the smallest cut-outs. I used the pointed end of the stick tool and gently rolled the tool back and forth to create the ruffles. I did this the whole way around the flower. How many ruffles you create is totally up to you! I tried to placed use the stick tool three times per petal. Then I placed the small flowers on the flower wave form to dry.
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| Adding ruffles to the smallest flowers |
While the smallest flowers were drying, I began to stack the largest flowers. I did this by placing layering the flowers largest to smallest on top of each other. Using the paintbrush, I placed a small amount of water between each layer to help them stick together. Then, I left the layered flowers in the flower cups to continue drying. I didn't stack some of the smaller flowers to help create some size variation for the cake. (When layering, try not to use too much water, as it destroys the fondant / gum paste...all you need is just enough to make the layers "stick" together.)
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| Flowers drying |
Once the smallest flowers (on the wave form) had some time to dry, I layered them on each of the other flowers as a centerpiece. I did this using the paintbrush and a small amount of water to help the layers stick. I then left them out overnight to finish drying.
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| Layered flowers drying |
After the flowers completely dried, I added a dot of buttercream icing to the center of each flower, then added them to my final cake. I would recommend waiting as long as possible to put the buttercream on and attach the flowers to the cake, especially if your cake is covered in buttercream. The buttercream will soften the fondant / gum paste and cause the flowers to "flatten" on the cake. This wouldn't have been a problem if my cake had been covered completely in fondant, but since it was a cake iced with buttercream, you might be able to tell that some of the flowers flattened...but my mother-in-law still loved it! I would encourage anyone making these flowers to try different colors. I wanted to do them in white, but I can't wait to make them again using different colors!
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| Finished cake! |
I hope you enjoyed this tutorial!
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