2 posts tagged “decoration”

Three weeks later, and I’m done with gum and flour paste. I can now make sugar flowers and foliage: roses, blossoms, leaves, lily petals and Stephanotis (I’m going to try and grow the real thing).

I was examined on all of these today plus arranging them on finished cakes. My roses were beautiful—old fashion with large blooms. I did use a rose cutter for some assistance. The trick with making a perfect rose is the first three petals should be approximately the same size. Starting after number three, gradually make them bigger and bigger. And you should place the petals above the bottom round, allowing you to bend each petal slightly. Don’t forget to clean the bottoms. My blossoms were ok, and she really liked my lily petal, but I thought it needed a bit of tidying up. With the lily petal, you can’t show the stem; that was easy for me, but for some it was a real struggle.  Lots of groans today.

I learnt a bit about pricing sugar flowers. A rose can start at $2.50, and for a small lily bouquet it can go as high as $35. Not bad, you can actually make money doing this. I’m not sure if I have the patience, it’s very detailed work,  crafty, it’s not cooking. The worst part you can’t really eat these things. What I like about cooking is being able to taste what I baked and sharing it with others.

To create these lovely flowers, the first steps is to get the right tools, colours, and glazes. You’ll also need all the stuff for the paste. Cutters are essential: start with small blossoms, Stephantotis (size small), rose petal, and regular stamens. Dusting powders you will want to have: brown, forest and moss green, aubergine, and burgundy.  CK vegetable gum, floral tape and flexible garden wire in green and white.

I recommend purchasing books on sugar flowers. Most provide step-by-step instructions from moulding the ball of paste to applying the final dusting of colour. Some good buys are Allan Dunn, Nicholas Lodge, Tombi Peck and Lesley Herbert.  

Drop me a line if you have any questions about this topic. There's not much on this on the internet.

Sugar roses

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Lily bouquet

Man oh man, from an intensive week at work, I woke up this morning too tired to attend my first gum and flour paste class, but I found the extra inch of energy to drive myself  40 minutes west of the city. I’m glad I went. Yes, these flowers look real, but they aren’t, they are made out of gum paste. This is delicate work, and you have to be super patient and comfortable working with very small quantities. I already know that those who have small hands are one up from the rest of us, unlike playing stand-up base. 

My Chef has spent all her life making these flowers for wedding cakes, and she told me she only teaches this now. “These flowers stay around longer than most marriages I help prepared for,” she laughed.  “It’s more meaningful for me to decorate “everyday” cakes, birthday cakes, graduation cakes at the Supermarket,” she said.  For those optimists still out there, here’s the obscure recipe:

Gum Paste Recipe

454 g icing sugar

3 tsp gum tragacanth or vegetable gum CK products

2 tsp liquid glucose

3 tsp Crisco white fat

2 tsp gelatin

6 tsp water

1 large egg white

1. Sprinkle the gum tragacanth over the icing sugar, but don’t mix. Warm this is a microwave over for up to 30 seconds to take the chill off. Don’t let this get too hot.
2. In a bowl, place the gelatin in the water to sponge. Place in the microwave for 25 seconds. Add the fat and glucose, stir until mixed. Then add the egg white and pour the entire mixture into the icing sugar sprinkled with the gum tragacanth.
3. Knead the  ingredients by hand. Put in a polythene bag in a container for 24 hrs.
4. All the ingredients except for the egg white may be warmed in a microwave prior to use to speed the process.