Hi! i was just wondering whether it was worth investing in a premade flower paste for making 105mm sunflowers for a wedding cake i have coming up. I attached a pic of a practice cake I did and the sunflowers were made from fondant with gum tragaganth added and they were hard but brittle and im not sure if they would hold their weight indefinitly. i also find it really hard to get this fondant/gum trag mix to roll very thing without getting stickly and tearing so the sunflowers were very heavy and that also worries me in regards to getting them to sit of the cake - any ideas??

for the topper I pushed the wires from the flowers into a ball of fondant on top of the cake. Is this the best way?? any other ideas? Also, what about the flower on the bottom tier, how could i attach it firmly, in the pic it's just set on.

Please help, im pretty nervous about this cake due to the sheer size and weight of these flowers - should i try a different medium to get them thinner and lighter?

Cathy, those flowers are BEAUTIFUL! The hues and right tone of colors makes it look realistic.

I prefer using a combination of Wilton fondant and Satin Ice gumpaste. It works great and never had a problem.

That's my only tip since I am not as experienced as you with flowers.

Good luck Cathy.

Cathy, those flowers are BEAUTIFUL! The hues and right tone of colors makes it look realistic.

I prefer using a combination of Wilton fondant and Satin Ice gumpaste. It works great and never had a problem.

That's my only tip since I am not as experienced as you with flowers.

Good luck Cathy.

I don't have any tips for the flowers but wanted to say that those sunflowers are beautiful. You did an excellent job. Sorry I couldn't help with your request.

Thanks everyone, i was happy with the look of them after a lot of practice but i really am worried that they are going to break under the weight or the wire will tear through them.

Bump

i would just do gumpaste. i cant get to grips with a 50/50 mix of gumpaste and fondant. and fondant will just break. gumpaste on its own should be much stronger, and thinner. (you could also do cold porcelin)

you are going to need one heck of a thick wire, you might be taping several wires together to get it strong enough, although with how the flowers are realy sitting on the cake, i wouldnt worry too much.

i would say that sticking them in a ball of fondant is good for the topper, nice and food safe. for the side one, use a flower pic or straw in the cake filled with something like chocolate to hold the wire.
xx

I have used the 50/50 for stuff like bows or ribbons,but not flowers. I don't think it would roll out thin enough for flowers. I use straight gum paste for flowers and you can roll it VERY thin. It does seem to dry a lot faster, so you don't want to dilly dally, but I think it gives petals a more real look.

ok, so to make gumpaste, i use my normal fondant and add gum tragacanth or cmc - about 1/2 teaspoon to 500g of fondant - is this actually gumpaste?? or is it too weak? should i add a lot more gum trag to make it into proper gumpaste?

poper gumpaste you can either buy, or make, i think nicholas lodges is on here, its very popular.
im not sure how well adding stuff to your fondant compares to real gumpaste, as i havent tried it before.
xx

Real gumpaste and fondant with a gum added to it are different. You can work the gumpaste thinner and it's stronger.

Here's Nicholas Lodge's recipe. It's great. http://www.nicholaslodge.com/gumpaste.htm

that recipe looks good, will try that, the only thing is i dont have a kitchen aid - wonder would my electric whisk work??

that recipe looks good, will try that, the only thing is i dont have a kitchen aid - wonder would my electric whisk work??

i think it will get to the point where your electric whisk will keel over and die! same as homemade fondant, the motor cant cope, but i would think you should be able to manage by hand.
xx

You could do the first part of it, blending the egg whites and powdered sugar, with the electric whisk, as long as your whisk can handle royal icing recipes. You might want to stir in the tylose by hand because that's when it really starts to stiffen up.