I am making a wedding cake for a co-worker. Her colors are fairly bright and I wanted to do gumpaste roses instead of colored fondant ones. I have not used petal dust before and wanted to know how easy it was to use.

Thanks.......

Super easy. Brush it on dry or wet.

Often, some coloring in the paste helps carry off the dust you apply. So I often color the paste and use dust.

for roses, I typically color the gumpaste first. I use darker version for the inner petals, mixing a little white gumpaste in as I move outwards (unless for a dark rose, in which case I just use the darker paste throughout). After dry, I dust the tips of the petals in the appropriate color to up the realism. For example - on a pink rose, I start with a darker pink for the inner petals, a slightly lighter pink for the next row, a slightly lighter pink for the next row, etc. After dry, i touch the edges of the petals with a darkish pink (I apply only dry dust). depending on the rose, I may also use a slight touch of pearl dust as well. i also touch the calyx and the leaves with a pink tone (after dusting the green) as well. then I steam the whole thing to set and finish the color.

I love working with petal dust. Make sure you steam them after you color to set it. I use my tea kettle, gives me the perfect steam stream to wave them around in.

Thanks guys..this sounds easier than I thought.

Keep Caking...

Question from a newbie: how and why do you steam flowers after using petal dust? Is it only flowers that this is done with? I've heard of steaming but never actually heard an explanation of it. Anyone able to fill me in?! Thank you!

It sets the color so it wont rub off. Its alot easier if you use a tea kettle. Anytime I use petal or luster dust on gumpaste it gets steamed.

if you dont have a tea pot a plain old pot of boiling water does the trick too, brush the dust on dry with a paint brush, then hold above the boiling water for a few seconds at a time, if you hold it there too long your gumpaste/ fondant can get soggy or go soft on you

if you dont have a tea pot a plain old pot of boiling water does the trick too, brush the dust on dry with a paint brush, then hold above the boiling water for a few seconds at a time, if you hold it there too long your gumpaste/ fondant can get soggy or go soft on you

I used petal dust the first time the other day. And I used a small paintbrush and applied it dry. But the end result didnt look natural at all. Even after steaming it, didnt look right. Reckon I was using the wrong dust?

Thanks for explaining ladies!

Great thread. Thank you!!

I have also used chalk (in the center of my orchids) and it worked well. I used a sm grater to shave it into dust. Got a box of nontoxic in the paint section of Michaels..48 colors for 4.00.