Gum Paste Flowers

Decorating By kateyharc Updated 22 Nov 2012 , 9:59am by kateyharc

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kateyharc Posted 21 Nov 2012 , 12:11pm
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Hello cake gurus,

I'm very much a novice cake decorator, but a few friends have started asking me to make cakes for them, as I love doing it.

 

One of my friends has asked for a cake topped with waterlilies. I've never made any kind of delicate sugar/gum paste flower before and am freaking out a bit. I rolled out some gumpaste yesterday and cut out some petal shapes, used a veining mold and fixed them to a disk-like central point and have left them to dry. My concern is that the are very thin and droopy and I don't think they'll sit up like a water lily.

 

Does anyone have any tips for me about making gum-paste flowers? How thin should I roll the gum paste? How long will they take to dry? What's the best way of assembling and affixing them to the cake?

 

I would love any advice or feedback :)

 

Thanks! 

4 replies
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perfectcakebyshirley Posted 21 Nov 2012 , 4:32pm
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I haven't made specifically water lilies, but gumpaste is meant to be rolled very thin - it will dry hard. It's best to leave it overnight to dry, resting on something that will hold the shape you want, until it's dry. Usually, you'd have thin wires in the petals, so to assemble, you use floral tape to tape together the wires. Otherwise, you could use RI or gumpaste glue (gumpaste dissolved into water) to put them together. Good luck!

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SugarQn31 Posted 21 Nov 2012 , 5:34pm
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hi katey

 

Rolling gumpaste too thin will cause breaking while assembling. I roll my gumpaste 1/8 of an inch that way it gives you some room to vein and soften edges. For water lillies I use the back of a spoon an make indentions in aluminum foil so that the petals can dry that shape. As for glue its up to you, you can use egg white, meringue powder and water, plain water. To assemble the water lily glue a few together and let dry continue the same way with the rest of the petals. If you are using wire after you use floral tape to secure them together you can move them freely to your desired look. I hope this helps.

 

Have fun

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arlenej Posted 22 Nov 2012 , 8:06am
post #4 of 5

I'll tell you what I tell everybody: YOUTUBE IS YOUR FRIEND! Also there's http://craftsy.com,ssugaredproductions.com, scottclarkwoollet.cc,petalcrafts.com Hop on-line and explore!

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kateyharc Posted 22 Nov 2012 , 9:59am
post #5 of 5
Quote:
Thank you so much. Appreciate the advice. I'll take a second shot at it now, armed with the new knowledge!

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