How To Get A Nice High Mound Of Gumpaste Flowers On Bc Cake?
Decorating By projectqueen Updated 31 Jan 2012 , 2:45am by projectqueen
I'm making some fantasy gumpaste flowers for a 6" top tier of cake. They want it to be a full mound of flowers covering the whole top. How do I get them high in the center to look like a half ball?
The cake is buttercream. I'm afraid if I just pile up a giant blob of bc in the center it will move all over the place in transport.
OOPS, forgot to add that I didn't use any wires 
Any suggestions?
Thanks.
I use a ball of fondant 2 inches smaller than I want the ball to be. Just put the fondant ball on top of a small piece of foil wrapped cake board and then on top of your butter cream. The fondant will stay soft enough for you to stick wires in while you work on it.
See wedding cake on page 2 of my photos for example.
I've used a mound of rice krispy treats covered in green icing. Then I just stuck the flowers onto that. It's probably not the best solution, but at the time I didn't have anything else to use and felt like I would be wasting fondant if I just used that.
A mound of flowers can also add alot of weight to the cake! I manage the weight by putting a cake board on the top of the top layer (after the fondant is applied) with bubble straws underneath it to support the extra weight. Then I coat a styrofoam half-ball, trimmed to the right shape and size, with melted chocolate to make it very smooth. I pound a sharpened dowel through the styrofoam and down through all layers of the cake into the foam core base or drum (because the weight on the top of the cake can make it tipsy.) Then I apply a layer of buttercream over the whole mound. I know you said, no wires.... but for larger flowers, I attach them to the styrofoam ball with wires. The smaller flowers can go right onto the buttercream. Alternatively, you can cover the board and styrofoam ball assembly with fondant and use melted chocolate to securely attach the flowers to the ball assembly.
To disassemble the cake for cutting, I can then slide a knife under the ball assembly and lift it off the cake.... keeping it intact in case the customer wants to keep it. Good luck and have fun!
Thanks, all. I was wondering if the styrofoam or icing mound w/flowers would add enough weight to the cake that it would have to be supported additionally.
Lots of great ideas, thank you. I guess next time I should use wires at least in the large flowers. Just kind of winging it.
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