That tutorial was fantastic Cakepro - you should post that whole thing in the tutorial section because you had a some great tips and ideas that I have never heard.
My biggest problems with the gumpaste roses are it seems like the petals are too soft and won't hold their rolls or shapes? And those last petals, did you let them dry out a bit on the spoon and then apply to the base of the rose to make them look fully bloomed? Did you apply them one right after the other or wait between each one?
Your roses are fantastic - thanks!
Cakepro, thanks for your "step by step" I am this morning going to give your method a try and see if I can do what you do. As gerripje says about the tip of her cone, mine also show!
What I want to know is, why do the roses have to hang upside down for a while? What is the reason for this?
If you need a visual you can go to youtube
This is a five part tutorial on how to make roses with
separate petals..This link is for part I
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qqiNRkSQLf8&feature=channel_page
For the other 4 parts go to
http://www.youtube.com/profile?user=tonedna1&view=videos
Edna 
Edna, I used your video tutorial the other day to make my first gum paste roses. I didn't realize you posted here. Now I can thank you! Your tutorial was so clear and easy to follow. And the results were great! My family can't tell my roses from the real thing! There's a picture in my photos.
Cakepro, thanks for that great explanation of the fishtail. I'll have to try that.
Cakepro,
Your roses are stunning!!!! What I wouldn't give to have mine look like that. How do you get that "look" - the full bloom, furled edge kind of thing? Does putting the separate petal on the spoon give that look? But then again it had that look before you put on the separate petals.
Mine always look so tight - not real like yours.
Yes - you definitely need to do a tutorial - maybe with a few more pictues on how you get them to look so beautiful. Thanks so much for doing the fishtail thing - I am giong to try that.
And while I am asking - what did you use to get that color red. Just beautiful!
Thanks again.
Edna, I used your video tutorial the other day to make my first gum paste roses. I didn't realize you posted here. Now I can thank you! Your tutorial was so clear and easy to follow. And the results were great! My family can't tell my roses from the real thing! There's a picture in my photos.
Cakepro, thanks for that great explanation of the fishtail. I'll have to try that.
Anytime!.. 
Edna
Thanks for both tutorials!! I do mine differently than both of you but hey, it's all good!
Thanks for both tutorials!! I do mine differently than both of you but hey, it's all good!
Actually, I do them with the five petal cutter. I used that so anybody could do them, since a circle cutter is always available to anybody!
Edna
Thanks for both tutorials!! I do mine differently than both of you but hey, it's all good!
It seems that everyone develops their own style to making roses.
Exactly!!..thats why you keep learning..everybody has something new to learn from!
Edna
Cakepro,
Your roses are stunning!!!! What I wouldn't give to have mine look like that. How do you get that "look" - the full bloom, furled edge kind of thing? Does putting the separate petal on the spoon give that look? But then again it had that look before you put on the separate petals.
Mine always look so tight - not real like yours.
Yes - you definitely need to do a tutorial - maybe with a few more pictues on how you get them to look so beautiful. Thanks so much for doing the fishtail thing - I am giong to try that.
And while I am asking - what did you use to get that color red. Just beautiful!
Thanks again.
Hi,
Thanks for the kind words.
The furled edge is done with a toothpick. I will try to post a couple of more photos in a bit of how to do that. The reason I do the last row of petal separately is so that I can space them out where they need to be, and sometimes if they are all connected (as when you use the 5-petal cutter), I just can't get them positioned where I want them.
I let them dry in the spoon a bit so they are cupped when I put them on.
I used Americolor Super Red to get that color, and then when the roses are dry, I brush them with Kiko Red petal dust (by European Cake Gallery) and just a touch of burgundy here and there on the edges.
Cakepro, thanks for your "step by step" I am this morning going to give your method a try and see if I can do what you do. As gerripje says about the tip of her cone, mine also show!
What I want to know is, why do the roses have to hang upside down for a while? What is the reason for this?
Hi Charmaine,
If the tip of your rose cone shows, you are just not getting a tight enough spiral on your first petal (what I call the "rosebud" petal). I will try to post a pic for you in a bit.
I hang mine upside down to dry because the paste is still somewhat soft, and I have found that drying them in a flower former forces me to use bits of foam to prop up the petals that want to droop. I don't like taking extra time to do this stuff, as it is already time-consuming enough, so I have found that hanging them upside down allows the petals to dry in a natural, upright shape.
edna i am a MAJOR fan of your videos- i have watched them many times. as a hobby baker i don't get to practice as often as i'd like.
what i actually liked abt your video was that it didn't use the 5 petal cutter. i have a hard time using it. i find that i end up with too much at the bottom- so it's fat base, then skinnier then fanning petals. so the individual petals works for me!
cakepro i loved your pics! i'll have to try the fishtail as i too can't seem to get my cone invisible. maybe with your method of detatching some of the petals i'll be able to get the 5 petal cutter to work. i'll have to try that next time.
cc is the greatest place with such helpful people!
edna i am a MAJOR fan of your videos- i have watched them many times. as a hobby baker i don't get to practice as often as i'd like.
what i actually liked abt your video was that it didn't use the 5 petal cutter. i have a hard time using it. i find that i end up with too much at the bottom- so it's fat base, then skinnier then fanning petals. so the individual petals works for me!
cakepro i loved your pics! i'll have to try the fishtail as i too can't seem to get my cone invisible. maybe with your method of detatching some of the petals i'll be able to get the 5 petal cutter to work. i'll have to try that next time.
cc is the greatest place with such helpful people!
I use to have this problem when I started..You are making your center too small for the cutter..The measure for the drop is from the center of the cutter to 1/4 inch under the cutter ends. The drop will change with a different cutter. And for making a full blown rose, you need 2 cutters, one bigger than the first, so your rose can open.
Edna
My biggest problems with the gumpaste roses are it seems like the petals are too soft and won't hold their rolls or shapes? And those last petals, did you let them dry out a bit on the spoon and then apply to the base of the rose to make them look fully bloomed? Did you apply them one right after the other or wait between each one?
Your roses are fantastic - thanks!
Hi CakeDiva,
Thank you.
Your paste may be too soft. What do you use? I have found that using a 50/50 blend of Wilton fondant (yes, that stuff is good for something LOL) and Nick Lodge's gumpaste is perfect.
I used to use all gumpaste, but some local friends whose work is freaking amazing (Denise of cakessospecial.com and Dena of denascakes.com) told me to use 50/50. The petals are much stronger than when using straight gumpaste and are much less likely to break. Dried gumpaste, especially when it is very thin, is so brittle!
Yes, the last petals were allowed to sit on the spoons for about 5 - 7 minutes. When I put them on, I put them on one right after another and give them a pinch when I put them on so they are more cupped. I will try to post a pic in a bit of what I mean. I use one cutter for the entire rose.
Cakepro, I have a quick question. For the last set of petals you had seperated each of them, and in the first row you removed 2 petals. So, the 3 petal first row and the 5 etals on the second row the petals remained connected, right?
Hope that makes since, it's 1:20 AM.
Thanks a bunch!
Hi Hazel,
In the first row, I remove 2 petals from the 5-petal cutout, and wind 3 connected petals around the base.
Then the next row consists of 5 connected petals (3 which are wound around the rose somewhat tightly and 2 which are furled on the edges) plus one extra, separate petal that I had left over from the previous row, which I also furled. So the 2nd row of petals actually has 5 connected plus one separate. I try to do things in odd numbers...3 tightly wound, 3 furled.
Then the next row has 5 connected petals, all of which are furled.
The final row has 5 separated petals, also all furled.
I'm going to get my stuff out and take pics of what I am talking about. Pictures are worth a thousand words!
Cakepro,
I can not thank you enough for all of the time that you have spent on this for us. Your pictures, your explanations, your answering all of our questions - and now you are going to add to that and help us with more photos.
Your generosity and willingness to share is to be commended. You don't just make some comment and then let us hang there and wonder what you meant or how to do something.
I am so looking forward to a few more photos on how to make that beautiful rose. I am going to learn how to do that rose if it's the last thing I do!!!
I would never have understood the fishtail without the photos.
Thank you so much Cakepro for the pictures and tutorial! And Edna, I love your videos and your practical teaching style! It is so helpful to learn different ways of doing things so we can find which way works best for our skill level. I really appreciate the time all you experienced decorators have gone to in helping out amateurs like me! I love this site, and I am so grateful for all the helpful tips and comments! I'll definitely be trying out the fishtail tip next time I do some roses. Thanks again!
I'm sorry, girls...I haven't forgotten about you. I just have been baking and icing-making like crazy for the weekend. Today I get to sit down and play with gumpaste again. Photos on a few other things asked about in this thread will be posted later.
Hi ladies, I'm new and love cake decorating as a hobby. I know you've been talking mostly about roses but maybe you can help me with gum paste cherry blossoms. I have to make a cake for the DC cherry blossom festival due on Saturday and I don't think I know what I'm doing...BTW I've seen the beautiful ones posted here on CC....I'm using the 5 petal blossom cutter w/different shades of pink Wilton gumpaste and using a leaf cutter to cut a little nick out of each petal...it's the center I'm worried about...since they have so many little fuzzy stamens should I go through a ton of stamens? royal icing? just some color? help please.....I already made 95 last night but left the stamens off till I know what to do.
thank you so much.
I used to use all gumpaste, but some local friends whose work is freaking amazing (Denise of cakessospecial.com and Dena of denascakes.com) told me to use 50/50. The petals are much stronger than when using straight gumpaste and are much less likely to break. Dried gumpaste, especially when it is very thin, is so brittle!
Cakepro, this is the best tip. I had made gumpaste flowers for my wedding cake (for the first design) using only gumpaste and my orchid broke by simply tapping it against a glass. 
But I changed my cake design and this time I used 50/50 (wilton gumpaste and MMF) and I dropped a few and you couldn't even tell (except for the one I stepped on 
). Even that one still had the base attached to the wire. I definitely recommend doing the 50/50.
My biggest problem is mine gets sticky the more I use it. I assume that it's picking up moisture from my hands but I use so much powd. sugar that I don't know how it stays so sticky! It's so frustrating and when I try to furl the edges with the baller I rip them or it gets stuck. 
It's so aggravating.
Also, am I really not supposed to stick the wires (I use the cloth-covered ones) in the cake? If not, that's really sad. I guess I'll have to get straws.
Isn't the sound of breaking sugar petals just heartbreaking? I haven't heard the crunch of one underfoot though! 
LOL
I have to use cornstarch when working with GP or 50/50 because I live in a humid climate and you know how hygroscopic powdered sugar is! It ends up getting sticky on me too.
No ma'am, no wires in cakes. 
If you get those skinny coffee stirring straws, you can pipe some icing in them and up to 3 wires will stay in them securely. For larger wired sprays, regular straws or fat bubble tea straws with BC in them works well too.
Your lead-free guests will thank you!
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