Saturday, January 3, 2009

Gumpaste Tulip Tutorial

January 22nd 2014 update

  *** 87,125 visits ***

May 22nd 2012 update

**  31,000 visits is now 45,000**

I can't believe that this tulip tutorial of mine, along with the frilly tulip has now had over 31,000 hits from all over the world!

I've written many other tutorials for teaching sugar flowers over the years, and I've decided to gather some of them up into a flower tutorial book.  I've included in the book these tulip instructions because it's not easy to print off the Blog. 

I'm hoping that you will enjoy the three other flowers that I have chosen:  Gardenia, Lily of the Valley and the Daffodil.  In the most part I've tried to use cutters that won't cost the earth, or are simple shapes (like the oval for the tulip).  There's a printed booklet, and a PDF version of the booklet.

For details, please see the end of this 'post'.............. Diane

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Now, here is    The tulip tutorial: 

The petals, pistil and stamens need to be in proportion to each other. For the petals I am using an oval cutter 2 1/2" long by 1 1/4" wide. The pistil starts at the base of the petals and is about half the height of the petal. The stamens are a little shorter than the pistil and are bent away from it. A real tulip below.

  1. The stamens. Make 6. Cut six 3" pieces of #32 white covered wire. Bend the wire over about 3/4" as shown in the photo below. Moisten this part with egg white or gum glue and dip in something like corn meal to resemble pollen. (I used a mixture of gelatin powder and yellow petal dust.) Let dry.
  2. The pistil. Cut a length of #18 covered wire. This will be the actual stem of the tulip. Colour some gum paste a very light green. Moisten the end of the wire and work the paste to cover the top 2 1/2" of the wire. Pinch the top of the paste into three, as in the photo. Leave upright to dry. This photo is of my oval cutter and the pistil.
  3. Petals. Make 6, three should be slightly narrower. Colour some gumpaste the shade you want your tulips. Roll out thinly on a grooved boardTurn paste over and cut out petal. Moisten the end of a 4" length of #28 covered wire and push into the raised portion of the petal. Tool the petal to thin out the top edge. Vein each petal. I have an Aldeval tulip veiner which works well.
  4. Make at least one extra large and small petal in case of breakage. So for one tulip make 4 large and 4 small petals. Gently push petals into a dessert spoon and leave to dry at least overnight.
Next I dusted the petals with a slightly darker red, just enough to bring out the veins. I also brushed a little black at the base. It's easier to dust before the tulip is assembled. Use green florist tape to tape the six stamens to the pistil;
  1. Tape the 3 smaller petals evenly around, to the base of the pistil. Tape each one separately so that they will stay in place and not slide around.
  2. Tape the 3 larger petals in between the smaller ones evenly around to the base of the pistil;
  3. You may want to add another one or two lengths of #18 wire to the stem to make it more like a tulip stem which is fairly thick. This is the finished tulip, dusted and steamed.
Leaves I rolled out a large piece of green paste and cut out the leaves freehand. You should leave a thicker piece from the base of the leaf about one third of the way up the middle to hold a wire. I also veined the leaves with my yellow rolling cutter, and the edge of a knife. Just don't press hard enough to cut the paste. Dry on crinkled tinfoil to give the leaves some movement. Dust and steam.

About a quarter of the folks who visit my blog do so by googling "gum paste tulips". I would love to know if you found the tutorial useful.

FRILLY TULIP
Note added 25th Feb. 2010:   I have a post on my blog showing how I made a frilly petalled tulip.  Click here for the link.
                            
                                 
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JUST RELEASED!  
my new (August 2011)
Gumpaste Flower Tutorials



Over the last 10 years, I have truly enjoyed my hobby of cake 
decorating, and especially making gumpaste flowers, and teaching this art to others. 

My Booklet offers simple step-by-step text instructions, which require
a minimum of special tools or cutters, and includes many colour photos. 
It features the Tulip, Gardenia, Lily of the Valley and Daffodil.

This Tutorial is available in a .pdf file via e-mail for $3 US.
Delivery will be (E)mailed within 24 hours following payment.

I've been asked if the flower tutorials could be sold separately.  Yes, and I have prepared the gardenia in it's own booklet, along with the tulip, as a 16 page PDF for $1.50.  


                  Click here to visit my ETSY shop.

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23 comments:

Anonymous said...

Diane,
Do you have the rest of the photos for the Tulip Tutorial? I was so excited to find your tutorial as I am going to be needing tulips in the next few weeks.

Thanks,
Lisa

cakeity said...

really helpful,and looks easy to follow...really clear and detailed.Thanks!

Anonymous said...

Thanks so much for this tutorial.
The pictures are very helpful!

Anonymous said...

Very helpful. I am planning a cake for July that has tulips. I can't wait to try these.

Marianna46 said...

The tutorial was extremely helpful! I actually bought a tulip plant to see how the flowers were shaped, before making two cakes topped with tulips. They would have both been a lot prettier if I'd seen your tutorial before.

Anonymous said...

I am so glad I was told about this site. I have to make a cake with tulips for mother's day and this has saved my life. Thank You for an excellent tutorial.

Diane said...

Hi Anonymous!
Glad your tulips turned out. Do you have a photo of your cake posted somewhere?
Diane

Megan said...

This was a very helpful tutorial. I appreciate the photos included for each step of instructions. Diane, great job with your gum paste work - it is very professional in appearance and technique. Thanks you for posting this extremely helpful blog.

Tanisha said...

Was wondering how long do you steam the flower and the leaves? And what does steam do? I am just getting into making gumpaste flowers! Love the tutorial thanks! Tanisha

Diane said...

Tanisha, I hope you come back here because you didn't leave a way for me to contact you to answer your questions.
About the steaming. After you have dusted the petals or leaves, just pass them through steam from a boiling kettle or small pot. If you leave them too long in the steam they will go limp, melt, or fall off the wire into the pot! Believe me, it's happened to me.
Then you have to either hang or stand to dry as they are sticky. When they do dry, the dust blends and the petals are shiny. Steaming definitely adds to the end result. Did you notice the sheen on the finished tulips? Hope this helps!

Anonymous said...

Thanks a bunch! I have been looking for a tulip tutorial with zero success rate... until I found our site..... very good tutorial! keep uo the good work! Can you do a tutorial on Hibiscus and Poinsettias?

Diane said...

Glad you found the tulip instructions useful. I could do one on hibiscus. I don't like poinsettias so I'll not be doing that one! It's a busy time right now, maybe closer to the fall.

Tristan said...

I cannot even begin to tell you how grateful I am for this tutorial.
I'm in culinary school for baking and pâtisserie and we're currently making gumpaste flowers for a cake and I've wanted to make tulips and could not for the life of me figure it out. I can't wait to go to class tomorrow and make these! Thank you SO much!

Rukni said...

Hi Diane,
I am lucky I found your blog. It is very useful. What is the dust that you are using to roll out the flowers? Is it corn starch or sugar?

Thanks,
Rukni

Diane said...

Hi Rukni

I use corn starch, just a little to stop the paste sticking. Sometimes I use a very light coating of Crisco on the board and rolling pin. Another thing, if your paste gets too dry, use a little water to bring it back to a nice consistency.

Rukni said...

thank you very much for your prompt reply.looking forward to more sugar flower tutorials specially pheony please.
thanx
rukni

Anonymous said...

Thank you so much for posting your tutorial on line, full of concise instructions and brilliant photos to accompany them. I've just made my first pair of tulips for a cake and they wouldn't have looked anywhere near as nice if I hadn't have found this website.

Vanessa.

Anonymous said...

very helpful,thanks a million.

Lindsey said...

Awesome tutorial!!!! Thanks for sharing :)

Anonymous said...

Looking for how to make gumpaste tulips, this tutorial is excellent.
Thanks for the help-

joy said...

your tutorial is excellent, I have been asked to do tulips for a wedding next year,so I have plenty of time to practice

Anonymous said...

Extremely helpful! You were the 1st suggestion on Google and were exactly what I needed! Thank you!

sugarrosecakes said...

Thanks for nice tutorial
Inoka