Hi, I'm very new at cake decorating. I am making my Grandparents 50th wedding anniv. cake and I wanted to make something like this.

Should I paint the circles for the flowers gold before I ruffle the edges? Should I make flowers fondant/gumpaste or just all gumpaste? And how would you attach the ruffled flowers to the cake?

Thank you! any other tips would greatly be appreciated!

Elaine MacGreggor has a Youtube video on making carnations. Have a look. If you ruffle it (with a celstick) the way she does, but without all that extra cutting to give the 'ragged edges' you'd get a thick enough edge to paint. As far as I know, you've got to wait for the edges to dry to paint them. Maybe a waterbrush would be best for that many flowers. I'd suggest gumpaste flowers. And for that many flowers, I'd wire them in bunches and then insert each bunch in a tier.

What a great idea to wire bunches together! Thank you so much for the great tips, I'm going to look for that video

When we made carnations at my Wilton class, after our flowers dried a bit, we poured out some dust on a paper towel, then brushed the edges of the flower with a bit of water or gumpaste glue and then dipped them in the dust. Tap off the excess and wa-la! All done. Good luck!