AI feel completely silly asking this question since I have been doing cakes for over a decade!

I don't usually use gumpaste. Like, hardly ever.

I have a cake with the HUGE flower (rose at the center) that spreads over much of the front of the cake.

My cakes are buttercreamed (rather nicely, with my new acrylic boards) and if I can spare the time and expense of fondanting the cake, that would be awesome!! Don't worry, it's for a friend and the design is up to me, so no "well, what did she pay for?".

Anyway, I made Nick Lodge's gumpaste to make my flower and petals. They are thoroughly dry.

I will be stacking the cake tonight, but not putting the petals on until tomorrow afternoon.

Can I put this gumpaste directly on the buttercream?? Or should I go ahead and fondant?

TIA

99% of what I do is buttercream, and I do those giant rose cakes on buttercream every time I do them. I did a video because I sell the petals and it was easier than tellign everyone who buys them how to put them on over and over, so here's the link to that.

@MBalaska if you're talking about putting them on the top of a cake just put them on, they'll be fine. To put them on the side of a cake you'd need some kind of skewer that's attached to the flower that you can stick into the cake. If they're relatively small you can use toothpicks, but it's safer to use something longer that will go farther into the cake. just build the rose on the skewer, then you can stick it right into the cake.

Thanks for the great video!!  You make it look so simple---love love love it!!

@costumeczar  That’s a great tutorial for Giant Exploded Flowers.  You explain as you go, which is very helpful.  You really made a nice smooth buttercream finish on those tiers.   You appear fearless while working so quickly and it’s encouraging. Thanks for sharing.

AA nice video, thanks

Thanks for the heads up on turning the petals,,I just love how yu cake turned out!!

It is a great video. I used it a couple of years back to make one.  Didn't know it was by you costumeczar!  Thanks for the tutorial.

AThank you...I watched the video twice before even posting this! Lol. I was still so nervous. I was a guest at the wedding and just wanted to be SUPER sure I'd be OK!

And let me tell you....I want to do this a million times. I love it. It's so easy and has such huge impact. I sprayed mine with a pale lavender pearl then splatter painted with a darker purple

The bottom tier was the color of the invites, which I posted earlier in the week. The "love" is from a tattoo the bride has. [ATTACHMENT=1921]PurpleandBlueWedding (2,823k. jpg file)[/ATTACHMENT]

@BeesKnees578  Super Duper awesome cake!  And from watching the @costumeczar tutorial.  WOW!!

@BeesKnees578  Super Duper awesome cake!  And from watching the @costumeczar tutorial.  WOW!!   duplicate post, or was it so nice I had to post it twice???

AThanks! I only wish I would have maybe put thin black (the same that love was written in) rope around the bottom of the middle tier. But I was happy with it over all.

That looks really good...I also  like the color effect on the bottom tier.

The purple on the flower makes it interesting, too. I did one that had a purple ombre flower on it (I'll be glad when purple is out of style so I don't have to deal with it fading). You can do all kinds of things with the flower color to spice it up.

Or do the edges with a color, but you have to be careful not to make it look like that colored cabbage. http://acaketorememberva.blogspot.com/2012/07/exploded-flowers-wedding-cake-with.html

AVery cool, costumeczar.

Ironically, the pic you posted in the link was her favorite cake when we had our consultation! But she had a bunch of others that looked nothing like her favorite.

She's a friend of my family so she didn't care, but had confidence that it would turn out just fine. She loved it!

It's astounding that someone brings you a 'favorite' cake photo @BeesKnees578, and you get a personal tutorial from the professional decorator @costumeczar who made it.  

and if you don't mind @costumeczar  your red rose cake.......simply blows my mind. 

http://acaketorememberva.blogspot.com/2013/01/red-roses-exploded-flower-cake.html 

Is it because of the deep rich colors of petal dust that you can get this type of bold beautiful color?

AYep...I'm loving costumeczar!

Thank you for sharing your knowledge!

You're welcome and no problem! I've had people bring me pictures of cakes people I know have made, and it makes you look really fancy when you say that you know them, hahaha! The cake world is very incestuous.

I think that the red in that picture was just red fondant with tylose in it. Dusting that much gumpaste to be that red color would be a nightmare. I do it with purple all the time but that's just to keep it from fading since purple gumpaste will turn blue as it dries.

I do like the three flowers on the cake instead of one big one, but I think I still like the white better....Here's another one like that. http://www.acaketoremember.com/images/white_flower_cake_rs_wm.jpg I always thought that one was really pretty.

I love that one!  And thanks for the tip about the purple gum paste.  I cringe when brides want purple or GRAY!  Oh waaaait a minute, all I need to do is try to make gray, and then I'll have PURPLE!  :-)