Watch Part 1 How to Make the Center of a Tulip http://cakecentral.com/b/tutorial/center-of-a-tulip

Watch Part 3 How to Assemble a Tulip http://cakecentral.com/b/tutorial/assemble-a-tulip

Watch Part 4 How to Paint Tulip Petals http://cakecentral.com/b/tutorial/paint-tulip-petals

Learn how to make tulip sugar paste flower petals from cake designer Amy Noelle in this Howcast cake decorating tutorial, part 2 of a 4-part series.

After I’ve created the center for my tulip, I’m ready to make the petals. I’ve rolled out gum paste and have cut it with a three petal cutter. I’m going to use these petals individually, so I need to separate each of the petals from the other ones and I’ll just use one at a time. I’m going to store the other ones underneath my plastic cell flap so that they don’t dry out.

In order to create this petal, I have a nice petal shape here, I’m going to tuck the very bottom, just fold it over, just to hide that raw edge. Each of the petals on this layer are individually wired. So I take my wire, dip it into a little bit of edible glue and brush off the excess. I’m going to insert the wire in between my two fingers, just about an eighth of an inch. It’s not very far at all, and then I’ll tear the gum paste back to the wires so it should, at this point, look like a balloon on a stick.

Now I believe in creating super thin petal edges, so the technique that I use, as if I’m snapping, I’m going to pinch and roll the edges. Before I do that I’ll put some powdered sugar onto my fingertips. So pinch and roll the edges and make sure that my fingers don’t stick to my petal, as I work all the way around. What this is doing is thinning out the edges and it’s also distorting that perfectly cut shape. Nothing in nature is ever perfectly round. I’ll take my petal, turn it upside down onto my veiner. And I want to press my petal into the veiner just a little bit, again to thin out the edges a little bit and also to widen the petal. Beginner sugar flower makers tend to make their petals too long and I want to make sure that my petal gets to be wider. So I’m going to press my fingers apart and widen the petal.

Now I also want to get some veins on the back, so we’ll take the same veiner and press it in. I want to make sure that the line that’s running through my veiner lines up with where my wire is. I can press on my veiner and that should give me texture onto both sides of my petal, carefully peeling this off.

Now if I were to leave this petal in my hand to dry overnight, it would dry flat. Petals in nature are not flat so I want to give it a little bit of movement. And I place it in a spoon to dry overnight and that will allow the petal to be curved, both front and back, and left and right.

For my tulip I need three of these petals that are wire and then dried in spoons. And then they’ll dry overnight and we’ll be ready to add the next layer of petals tomorrow.