Wednesday is Cake day!

For a few years now my cake friend Verdie and I have saved Wednesday afternoons to play around with sugar!

Today we had a fun day first of all finishing off white roses and leaves for an October wedding.

After that we decided to try making a flower that neither of us had tried before. It was pictured on a wedding cake in one of our books, no name, no instructions. We thought it was a gardenia, but it turned out to be frangipani.

Here's a quick tutorial on how to make this flower:

I used an orchid petal cutter. The petals are quite waxy, so roll the gum paste out fairly thickly. Tool the edge just slightly.

Fold the petals in half and slightly twist them.

Brush a little water on the bottom on each petal and layer them, one on top of the other. Fold the two outside petals around to join.

Adjust petals, and pinch off any excess paste from bottom. At this point you can push a moistened hooked wire into the bottom of the flower. Here are our first attempts. When they have dried, we'll dust the middles cream and steam them to give a nice sheen. These are without wire so will be attached to a cake with royal icing.