Well, I survived this week, but barely…I just finished catering a wedding for 200 people!!! I did the wedding cake and all the appetizers (pictures will be up soon). This was my first time catering a wedding for so many people and boy was it a lot of work. I was absolutely exhausted, but I thought that I owed my loyal blogger friends a good post and another giveaway, so here it is!!! For this tutorial I thought I would show you how to make easy sugar flowers that are simply gorgeous. You just need a few tools of the trade and your flowers will turn out beautifully. The giveaway book, Sweet & Simple Party Cakes, by May Clee Cadman has a lot of great photos and techniques for decorating cakes and I thought that this book in particular would be a great tool for any baker/cake decorator to have. So to enter the random drawing for the book just leave a comment before Wednesday night and you will be entered. Good luck!
So to start off making these flower decorations you need to mix together 50% fondant and 50% gumpaste. The fondant helps with the smoothness and the gumpaste helps you to be able to roll out the dough very thin and it also allows the dough to harden quicker.
Then you can color the dough any color you would like. Next roll the dough out on a flat surface with a little cornstarch to prevent sticking. You need to roll it out very thin so that you have nice, delicate petals…about 1/8″-1/16″. Then instead of using a petal cutter you can free hand some petals of your own. Just use a sharp small knife or an exacto knife and cut out some teardrop shapes about 3/4″-1″ tall.
Next you need to take each petal and use a balling tool to thin out the edges of the petals and give them a more realistic shape. You do this by placing the petal on a soft surface and gently rubbing the tool back and forth. (As you might notice in my pictures I didn’t have my balling tool with me, but this tool did the same job basically) Now if you don’t have this tool try using the back of a spoon to achieve the same effect.
Now you need to continue doing this to all five petals for the base layer. Place some plastic wrap or paper towels on a concave surface, like a tiny bowl, to create the forming shape for the petals. Lay each petal down, overlapping slightly and adhering them to one another with a dab of water. You can also use the aide of tiny pieces of paper towel or plastic wrap to help create the dips and curves of the petals while they are drying.
After the base five petals are down cut some more and thin them out too. Then place the next row of flowers on top. You can use your judgement with how many petals to add, but always do it in odd numbers…it makes the flower look more realistic. Again, use the aide of paper towels or plastic wrap to help give your flower realistic curves with it is drying.
To finish off the flower, cut a small round circle out and thin it out just as you would a petal. Place it in the center of your flower and as always adhere it with a little water. Now let you flower dry until it is completely hard…a couple hours or overnight.
Once the flower dried I used different colors of luster dust to give it a more realistic look and because Iike the shiny look of it. Just dust on the luster or petal dust however you want, but be minimal…you can always add more, but you can’t take it off. I then tried two different centers…for one center I brushed yellow luster dust and then added one single pink dragee. For the other center, I put one sugar pearl and added more yellow luster dust to make it look like it had pollen on it.
Now just place your flower decoration on top of a cute cupcake and enjoy your beautiful creation!
Tags: baking tutorials, cute cupcakes, decorating tutorials, dragees, easy sugar flower tutorial, flower cupcake decorations, how to decorate cupcakes
pretty flower and great tutorial!! i am still scared of making these kinds of flowers, but thanks for making it a little less scary
What great pictures and such a detailed tutorial! Beautiful work.
It’s my B’day today. I’m lying in bed with a bad cold , sore throat & no voice. But seeing your flowers totally brighten up my day!!!!! Can the flowers that is mix with fondant & gumpaste be eaten?I was told that gum paste is just for decorations.was also wondering where can i buy your lovely cupcake stand?Thanks for sharing how to do them!!
Thanks for the tutorial and for the blog candy. The book looks lovely, I hope I win! but than again don’t we all.
Wow, you have been busy! I hope you had some help with the catering?!! I love hearing your news and can’t wait to see your pictures from the wedding, in particular the cake!
The flower is too pretty to eat! I love making sugar flowers, but I mainly make them out of flowerpaste and then they are wired together to make a bouquet. I’ll have to give the sugarpaste (or fondant)/gumpaste mixture a go next time.
Your enthusiasm for your work is inspiring. Thank you.
I cant believe you catered a wedding for 200 people! WOW! And that cupcake is adorable.
as always — perfect tutorial for a perfect result! thank you Melody!
Another inspiring tutorial! The cupcake looks absolutely beautiful….Here’s to hoping to win that book!!
thank you for all your tips. I can’t wait to try it.
Ohh, thankyou so much for the tutorial!! Perfectly timed – I’ve been looking for something exactly like this to help me decorate my mum’s birthday cake next week! I think you must be psychic XD. She’ll love these! And I’m ridiculously excited over it, haha.
Absolutely stunning, i’m loving your tutorials, keep them coming. They are just inspiring !!!
I love your blog. Thanks so much for sharing your skills with all of us. I discovered your site a few months ago and I totally love it. Have not tried any yet; but I do plan too. I think I am just a tad scared.
The cupcake are beautiful! I can’t wait to try the flowers. Thanks for all the great tutorials!!!!!
The flowers are absolutely beautiful–to take a humble cupcake and transform it that way–
awesome! Pardon my ignorance, but I have never tasted gumpaste, and the fondant I had once
on a piece of wedding cake was, well, quite frankly only a little tastier than cardboard.
So do people just remove the flower and devour the cupcake, or do some enjoy eating the
flower as well? Inquiring minds want to know…..
this is so interesting, i really like it when you do this and show us how to make things. you must have the patience of a saint to make as many cupcakes as you do and decorate them so beautifully. i can only imagine your catering jobs will get bigger with the wonderful work you do.
Beautiful flower, and great tutorial, thanks! I would love to add the book to my collection – thanks for the giveaway!
Absolutely beautiful!! Great tutorial! You do a nice job at showing how easy it is when they look so hard!! I would love the chance to win this book! Keep up the good work!
I don’t know if I’d have the patience to make the gumpaste flowers, but they’re beautiful! And, another giveaway? Count me in!
Love the flower, much prettier than just a rose!
I love your blog!! Thank you for sharing your creative ideas!
So easy once it is explained properly! Thanks for the great tutorial1
Cool flower, have to try making those one day
Wow those are beautiful flowers I can not wait until i make my own, I just started making flowers out of fondant and a couple of more trys and i think mines might look as good as those.
Gorgeous flower. I really like the step by step instructions, I’ll definitely be referring to this as my template some time in the future
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So pretty!
I just catered a wedding too, it was my own:) I had a great time baking and cooking! Everyone told me I was crazy but it really turned out great and I was so glad I did it. See my blog for some pictures…scroll down a bit:)
Your flower is beautiful!!
I will try your flower this weekend for a family reunion, Thank you. I was thinking on buying that book yesterday, I will wait maybe I will win it
awesome! do you buy the gum paste and fondant pre-made or is there a way to make those yourself?
omg…i love these flowers!! i can’t wait to make some, and actually i’m doing an anniversary cake at the end of august that these would be perfect for. thanks so much!
btw congrats on getting through such a huge wedding. i’ve done one wedding cake so far and i know it’s a lot of work. i just don’t know how you were able to do appetizers as well as the wedding cake.
have a great day!
Such beautiful flowers!! I can’t wait to try and make them
Thanks for the great tutorial! I am bookmarking this for the future.
Beautiful!
I can’t wait to see the photos from the wedding!
Love it! Can this be eaten?
Beautiful! You’ve inspired me to try to make something beautiful once I get home from the office.
Gorgeous as always! Thanks for the tutorial.
those look awesome!
I would love to learn how to make this!!!
Please enter me!! Nice tutorial.
So beautiful and so yummy. What a great draw gift too! ~Thank you
Love the tutorial. Thanks so much !!
yum! it almost looks too pretty to eat!
Hi, thanks for another tutorial. Next month’s Wilton’s course starts on fondant. With this tutorial I’m going to go in looking like a Pro.
Ingrid
Thank you so much for the tips.
Congratulations on the wedding catering job! I can’t imagine how stressful it must have been, but then the huge reward when you saw the joy in the bride’s face.
Thank you for sharing such detailed descriptions for the flowers. I think I might actually be able to pull something like that off….maybe….
Very helpful tutorial for those of us still learning the nuances of fondant! Of course I would looove that book too!
Gorgeous! Thanks for the tutorial. I would love the book.
Hi Melody~
You made it seem easy! I always want to do this but chicken out every time when I get the tools out! Seem so time consuming and require patience & skill, which are the things that I’m still working on ;p
p.s. I would love to be entered for the drawing but am I too late?!
Jeeze! 147 comments? That’s crazy! I think I should win, because I suck at decorating cakes.
Your flower is so pretty! I want some luster dust.
You make this seems so easy. I don’t know if I’d have the patience to do more than one of these with two toddlers. This book looks awesome – maybe it’ll get me enough of a kick to get motivated and try!
it’s so pretty!
love to have the book!