I'm going to try gumpaste roses for the first time. I watched a tutorial on Youtube where the lady uses a styrofoam egg for the center (for large roses). She uses a 5 petal cutter but I'm not sure what size it is or what the size is of the egg. Here's the tutorial:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UYkPhb-_gDg&feature=related

If I want to make smaller roses, how big does my egg/cone have to be? Also, these are being placed directly on the cake, so I don't need wires. Do I just cut the wires off to put them directly on top?

Thanks,
Annie

the size of the 5 petal cutters is 110mm. i can,t figure out the size of the styrofoam. If they are going on your cake, do not use any type of wire , just make it like you see her doing. the size of the petal itself is like 1 12"x 1 1/2 ". I am fixing to make them also on the wire and teach them at a technical school here. good luck with yours also. Of course, the smaller the rose, the smaller the cone and cutters.

I use these all the time to make my roses. Basically when you make a rose you need a center. Some people prefer gumpaste to start with which makes it very heavy. Especially when your making larger roses. So to to minimize the weight you can use these styrofoam cones. If you want to put them on wire, you simply insert a wire that has either been coated in hot glue or with white chocolate. Working with them on wires makes it much easier to hold them. Otherwise you would have a cone that could roll around and it would effect the look of your petals.
I do not use the five petal cutter. I just prefer to make my petals one by one so that I can lay them where I want and not feel rushed to get them on there. And I can also have my petals have more of a cup shape on some of them which you cant achieve with the five petal cutter.
You can buy these cones at Global Sugar Art under Flower Accessories and are called Cel Buds.

I just watched Jennifer Dontz's Sensational Flower DVD. It featured the rose and the stephanotis. She shows each step of making a perfect rose. I would highly recommend it! Sugaredelites dot com.

If you're using the 5 petal cutter in that video, it has a raised triangle on one of the petals to show the size of cone that you need. I make the cones from gumpaste because those little styrofoam eggs are expensive. You can use lollipops too...for the 110 mm cutter, blow pops are the right size. For the 80mm cutter, dum dums are the right size. Lollipop sticks are food safe too.

Personally, I have to have my roses on a wire or they don't come out right. I hang them upside down to dry. If I use a lollipop for the center, then I use a tiny spring clamp to hang it upside down from my drying rack. I slide the wires into plastic lollipop sticks and insert them into the cake that way, if I'm adding individual roses.

You can get a nice curve to the petals with the 5 petal cutter.

Thanks for all of your replies. I hope you don't mind if I throw a few more questions at you.

Texas, your roses look great. I thought the wire was kind of a necessity for drying, just going based on what I've read so far. I know some people use toothpicks and other picks to hang them too.

Do you use multiple sizes of the five petal cutter for the roses or the same one for the entire flower? In the video, it looks like she's using the same one.

What kind of sugar glue should I be using? I saw a recipe somewhere on here where you dissolve some tylose in water. Is that common or is there something better?

Should I use straight gumpaste or a 50/50 mix of fondant and gumpaste? These are going to be made in advance so I need them to stay strong. Also, since the roses are supposed to be red, I may end up painting color on them at the end, so I don't want any petals to break during that process.

I don't know yet whether or not I'm going to need the wire. I am doing these flowers for my own wedding cake in December. I am having multiple cakes (just a 4 tier on multiple cake stands) so I need to make toppers/decorations for each cake. I want to get started now so I can be well-prepared before the big day.

I use straight gumpaste, Nicholas Lodge's recipe.

For glue, I sprinkle a little tylose in some water and let it dissolve. You can adjust the consistency by adding more or less water. I like kind of a thick consistency so it doesn't drip out of the roses when I hang them upside down. I don't use a recipe.

You can use two sizes of cutter for the rose, make the outer two layers with the larger cutter, or you can use one cutter for all the petals and just thin the outer ones a bit more so they're larger.

Make them on wire so you can add some height to the flower arrangements on top of the cakes. It's easier to wrap the wire before you put it into the cone. I bend the wire into a little hook, brush with tylose, stick into the fat end of the cone and then pinch the gumpaste closed over it. Let them dry at least a day, longer if you're using Satin Ice gumpaste.

I paint my red roses because the red gumpaste fades as it dries. Red darkens a couple shades as it dries, especially super red.

Thanks again for the helpful info, Texas.

Do you wrap your wires in floral tape?

Also, thanks for the tip about painting the coloring on. I have a few questions about that as well.

Do you use powdered coloring mixed with some kind of extract to paint your flowers? What brand do you use? Also, how much "paint" can you get out of an average container of coloring?

Sorry for all the questions. Thanks again for your help!

I use floral tape. Just the basic, cheap kind. Some people buy fabric-covered wire, but it's more expensive.

When I paint, I mix gel color and vodka. I did these with Wilton's red-red:


I tried Americolor's super red before that and ended up with a nearly black rose...very neat looking but not what I was going for at all.

You can also paint with petal dust mixed with vodka, but petal dust is a lot more expensive. You can brush petal dust on with a dry brush. It's possible to get some really realistic shading with it. I was happy with how red my roses ended up with just the gel color/vodka, though. The gumpaste was a dull deep pink before I painted it. It only takes a couple drops of color...if all you were doing with the tub of color was painting, it would probably last years.

Wow those are some red roses!

Ok, another question. Do I need to worry about the color bleeding onto buttercream, or does the vodka keep the color in place?

Thanks again!

I've never put any on buttercream, so I'm not too sure.

That's ok, I have a good jumping-off point. Thanks so much for all your help!

Oh that's a bummer! I was going to use IMBC for my cake. Maybe I can put a piece of parchment paper over the cake to protect the buttercream from bleeding color.

Thanks for letting me know!