Okay, I searched the site but couldn't find it or was too lazy looking for it or got too distracted reading other topics

I need help looking for a solution regarding gumpaste flowers. I was trying to make a floral spray with it but thought at how heavy this sucker can get when you put 10 or more flowers together. Are my gumpaste flowers too thick to make it heavy? Or is there some invention I haven't heard about that I can use for me to stick it in my iced cake?

I'm not exactly sure what a flower pick is. Can you post a link?

If you are doing a spray of gumpaste flowers you would be taping the stems together to make one solid spray. I don't stick them into the cake, I just lay them on the surface. The icing doesn't affect the gumpaste, just be sure you steam your flowers after assembling so the petal dust doesn't flake off on your cake. If you are sticking flowers into the sides of the cake then I would use floral picks. They are little plastic containers with a sharp pointed end. They have a little cup or well to hold water for fresh flowers, insert into the side of the cake and stick the taped stems into the cup. You can't use very heavy flowers on the sides even with picks, the cake just can't take that much weight. I looked at your photos and I would suggest rolling your gumpaste a bit thinner. It makes a lighter weight flower, but it also makes the flower look more realistic. You want the paste petal to be the same thickness as a real flower petal. Some flowers are waxy like the tulip and have thicker petals, but use a real flower as a guide.

Thanks for the info and tip on thinning my petals. Will try a second batch of roses next week. Also, I saw the flower picks at AC Moore today but held off buying it. I'll just use my first batch of roses and make a boquet of roses and put them in a glass container. Since I'm just starting my course, there's a lot of expense involved so flower picks will have to wait. But knowing me, I'll prolly buy them tomorrow

fooby, sometimes I use a thick straw (but not as thick as bubble tea), cut it to about 2 inches, fill with gumpaste or fondant, and stick the flowers into that. It is food safe and handy when I don't have any flower picks around.

I just thought of something I used on this cake. The gumpaste Tulips arrangement is quite large and could have just been laid on the cake surface. But because I needed to bake these cakes with a baking core, the pans are 3" tall, I put the baking core to one corner of the cake instead of directly in the center. Normally you would pour batter into a greased core and after baking you would slip that cake out of the core to fill in the hole. Instead, what I did was measure carefully on the placement of the core so the holes in both layers would line up evenly. I removed the baking core, didn't refill the holes with cake. Filled and iced, covered in fondant and cut away the fondant over the holes. I used a liquere glass that was exactly the height of the finshed cake, slipped it into the hole left by the core and put my Tulip arrangement into the glass. Worked perfectly!
http://www.cakecentral.com/modules.php?name=coppermine&file=displayimage&meta=allby&uname=ShirleyW&cat=0&pos=120

Hmmm straw or liquer glass.... okay I'll see what I can do. I'll let you know what happens in a couple of weeks. Always something new to learn every day Thanks for everything!!

If you have a thicker base on your gumpaste arrangement, you can also use a hidden pillar (cut to size) in the cake and insert your wires into it.

You can also wrap the ends of the wires (everything that will go directly into the cake) with press'nseal and insert them into the cake that way. The press'nseal serves as your barrier between the wire and the cake.

Also, if your flowers are so heavy that they are bending the wires, you probably need to change to a heavier guage wire.

When making your gumpaste flowers use a pasta machine (if you have one) to get them evenly thin. If you don't have a pasta machine, roll out a smaller amount thinly enough that you can see through it. I can read a business card through mine, but I'm nuts. Even it you don't get the petals thin enough to see through, be sure to at least thin the edges. This will give the appearance of thinner petals.

Another neat trick for thinner flowers is to steam them, let them dry, steam them again, let them dry, etc. I learned this trick from a lady from England (I can't remember her name), but I have noticed that my flowers look even better after about the 3rd steaming.

Good luck with your flowers. I love the idea of putting the glass vase inside the cake. Cool idea.

Michele

The thinness you need varies according to the type of flower.

you'll have to have a pretty large arrangement to get heavy enough to cause problems with the cake.