I've made my first gum paste flowers over the last week or so, and I want to put them on top of a 6 inch cake in a mound. All the flowers are on wires at this point, but I've read on here not to poke the wires directly in the cake. I'm wondering how to attach them? I've read about the coffee stir sticks, but I don't really want a bunch of sticks in the cake. Is it possible to make a mound of fondant and poke the wires into it? Or a fondant covered Styrofoam half ball? The cake will be covered in butter cream, not fondant, I don't know if that will make a difference with either method? Thanks for any ideas/info/advice! I greatly appreciate it!

Here's some of the flowers I made so you know what I'm working with. Trying to make a fall color bouquet. Not sure if the link will work, I'm not able to attach pictures.

http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#!/photo.php?pid=5133756&id=559582513&ref=fbx_album

The link didn't work.

I've used a styrofoam half ball and a mound of fondant before. It takes a lot more flowers than you might think to cover the styrofoam ball. The mound of fondant works well. I use a piece of foamcore board cut to the size I need, and put the fondant on that.

I agree with the pp. I was really surprised at how many flowers it took to cover with my first cake like that! I attached mine on wodden coffee stirring sticks that came from my Mom's house. I have no idea where she got them. It'll be a sad day at my house when I run out of them!

Oops, maybe this one will work. It's a public link?

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=196448&id=559582513&l=5db3d737d8

Thanks Texas_Rose, I didn't think of the foamcore underneath. I was afraid it would take alot of flowers! I don't know how many to make because I don't know how many it will take! I'll just keep making them, I can always use any extras for something else.

That one worked They're lovely!

Whichever you end up using, you can use some tulle to fill in gaps. I cut squares of tulle and then gather them in the center and wrap a wire around it. You can make lots of little tulle puffs like that and stick them into the styrofoam ball or mound of fondant before you start adding the flowers.

You can see the tulle on this one:


That was on top of a 6" cake. I make really big roses though...about 3.5" across. I'm lazy and don't have to make as many that way.

Thanks for the great ideas! I can't wait to put it all together and see how it turns out!

You guys are all wonderful. From this conversation, I think I have a solution for a cake topper that I need in about 2 weeks for my daughter's birthday. I just need to tweak the idea and work it out.

This is why I LOVE CC'ers. You guys are AMAZING!!!!

The only problem I"ve had with putting them in a ball of fondant, is that the fondant is soft and heavy gumpaste flowers (roses!) will tend to tip. My favorite approach is to start around the bottom of the fondant ball (1/2 ball, really, with a flat bottom), sticking the flower wires in all the way around, then go up to the next level and do the same thing, then finish with the flower(s) at the top. Make a lot of filler flowers and/or leaves to tuck in between the big flowers to conceal the wires. I've never tried the tulle, but I will now. Bits of ribbon would probably work, too.

I can't figure out how to put the photo here, but in my photos there is a bouquet of mixed flowers on a chocolate fondant-covered cake that is done this way.

Well I gave it a try and this is how it ended up. I have some leaves to add to fill in some of the gaps. I ended up with a half ball of Styrofoam completely covered in fondant. It's resting on a cake circle for tonight, I'll put it on the cake tomorrow and see how it looks from there. Thanks for the info and advice everyone! Now that I've tried it once, I'm sure my next one could be even better.

http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=5173488&l=229958f602&id=559582513

It looks beautiful.

If you have time, I'd mix a little brown gel color with vodka and darken the centers of the sunflowers, and add the tiniest bit of pink to the edges of the yellow roses...but it's really lovely as it is.

I'm late but for my wedding cake I had tons of gumpaste flowers and I ended up using coffee stirrers to insert the flowers in. I really liked using them because I could put 2 big wires in the 2 holes in the stirrers and my stephanotis and ivy leaves I'd bunched together with type and one bunch would slide in a hole. This way I could use less stirrers, less cake holes, and sort of pre-arrange the flowers to a decent arrangement.

Some people use white chocolate and pour it into the coffee stirrers so the wires are "glued" in. I didn't find it absolutely necessary for this cake but for a few others I've done it would've been helpful.

Good ideas! I have plenty of time, I'll try that today! I didn't think of painting on the centers. I was wishing they were darker! Why didn't I think of that!? I'd like to learn more about shading, to make the roses look more realistic. I'm planning a cake for my moms 60th birthday in November and want to do a bunch of roses for her.

Thanks for your advice and suggestions Texas_Rose!! You've been a great help to me!

Myra

Myra - your flowers look great. I especially like your calla lillies. I always darken the deepest interior parts of roses with petal dust a shade or two darker than the petals. And a contrasting color on the very edges is really nice, as Texas Rose suggests. A little bit of deeper color toward the center of blossom and daisy petals also makes them look more realistic. It looks like you covered all of the flower with a sparkly dust. That's a different effect and less realistic, but very pretty.

Ooh, Myra -- check out the photo in today's most saved by mireillea. If you look at the blossoms and lavender roses she did, you'll see how using a darker color of petal dust in the centers adds depth and realism to gumpaste flowers.

Yes for these ones my friend wanted sparkle. So I did some kind of pearl dust on everything. For the next ones I do, I want a more realistic look. I think I need petal dust for that? A dust that's matte, not sparkly?

Right. Petal dust has a matte finish and comes in a zillion colors. I arrange little piles of the dust around the rim of a plate with some cornstarch in the middle. You can use the cornstarch to clean your brush -- not water because you want the brush and the dusts to stay dry. You can mix colors together or soften them with the cornstarch to get the effect you want. It's really fun to do. For leaves, I brush a darker color along the veins, then a little bit of yellow at places where light would hit. If a flower has streaks or spots, like lillies and orchids or pansies, you can add those with liquid gel colors. I use the petal dusts over dry gumpaste with the base color in it. It adds so much depth and realism. And it's a very relaxing and artistic part of the whole process.

Oh wow, that cake by mireillea is gorgeous!! I see what you mean about the darker color in the center. I will definitely try that next time.

Yeah, mireillea's blossoms are amazing -- the centers are so delicate. If you look in my photos, there's an autumn cake with orange fondant, a yellow rose, and lots of autumn leaves. I mixed bits of orange, green, and brown gumpaste together to get a marble effect, cut out the leaves and veined them, then used various colors of petal dust to get even more color and variety on them. It was fun to do and they really looked good. Have fun with it.

Thanks for sharing your technique! I can't wait to try it out. Do you know how far ahead I can make flowers? A couple weeks? More? Will they start to get brittle or deteriorate if I make them too far out? Since I'm so new at gum paste flowers it takes me a long time to make them. I'm wondering when I should start. I watched Ednas you tube videos, so I make the centers one day, then build from there. Roses seem to take a couple days at least, so there's drying time between. The flowers above were made over a 2 week period I guess.

You can make gumpaste flowers months in advance. No limit, as long as you keep them in something airtight to protect them from humidity. Very thin edges are brittle, so you have to be careful with them -- store them in paper towels or something soft to protect the edges. I have some that were extras, plus extra bow loops, leaves, and filler flowers, that I have had for over a year. They're fine and I know I can use them at some point. More time for gumpaste is better, because it has to be totally dry. If there is a lot of humidity, it can take a long time. But you can get started now -- it gives you stressless practice time, too.

You can make gumpaste flowers months in advance. You have to protect them from dust, light and humidity. I just store them in a cardboard cake box.

You can use non-toxic chalk instead of petal dust, on things that won't be eaten, like gumpaste flowers. I bought a box of 48 artists chalks for $5 at the craft store and I just grate a little bit of the color that I need by scraping the chalk against a metal strainer. You can use gel colors mixed with vodka for intense colors or to add a little bit of shine. Leaves always look better when they're painted, at least to me they do. You can add dots on flowers with nontoxic markers, or use them to draw details on gumpaste figures.

I've been meaning to buy a cheap set of eyeshadows and try using them as petal dust...those sets they have at Walmart around Christmas time that have about 50 colors, most too wild to wear...

How come these posts show as posted Sunday, Sept 12, and it's only the 11? I'm writing this at 11:00, EST. Off topic, I know, but interesting!

I didn't even know you could do that!

I had no ida what GMT was. Had to ask my husband to figure it out for me. Thank goodness he used to travel the world for his profession and he knew immediately.

Thanks for your help, Rose.

Wow! Mireillea does gorgeous work. Have you checked her website?
http://www.cakecreations.nl/

Well here's how the cake ended up.

http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=5178944&l=3c89925b64&id=559582513

I decorated it at my friends house with her, so we wouldn't have to move it, and forgot to bring my real camera, so this is just an iphone picture, but you get the idea. It turned out ok. I think my flower mound should have been smaller, like I should have started with a smaller half ball. But overall, I like the way it turned out.

On another note, this was my first time using an impression mat on buttercream. Now I have to go look for tips for that as well, because I don't think I did it right! Oh well, not bad for only my 2nd stacked cake.

Thanks so much for help CC'ers! You are full of great info and I love learning from you!

It came out great! The part with the impression mat looks fine too

It looks fabulous! Good job.