Sugar Wednesdays

I seem to be posting more about cakes these days than sewing. And for sure Wednesday afternoons have been all about Sugar with my friend Verdie for several years now. And this Wednesday was no exception. We are working on a cake to celebrate the various groups that meet within an organization in June. Part of decoration will be clusters of "people", and here is the beginnings of that: We needed a couple of dozen rosebuds to decorate a "cut up" cake, and as I was preparing for that I decided to do a quick tutorial on how to make these cute little rosebuds.

1. Roll either fondant or a mixture of fondant and gumpaste out fairly thinly and cut circles. These are about 1" in diameter. You need three circles. If the fondant is very soft, leave the circles to dry out a bit before moving on to the rolling up part.
2. Use a paintbrush to moisten each circle with a little water.
3. Lay each circle overlapping the next.
4. Start rolling, fairly tightly.
5. Roll to the end.
6. Divide in half and neaten the ends. You get two rosebuds from each roll.
7. They are so quick to do. These were done in less than 20minutes.

I also worked a bit more on the fuchsias, and added the next step to the fuchsia tutorial which is further back in my postings.


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If you love making gumpaste flowers, please read about my new 

Gumpaste Flower Tutorials Booklet, available in booklet form or PDF. 
The tutorial covers four lovely flowers: Tulip, Daffodil, Lily of the Valley and Gardenia.  Check it out at my Etsy shop here 

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.
4. 

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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