sugar flowers

Cake Decorating Texture Tutorial: Dry Dusting, Stenciling and Sponge Painting Techniques

June 21, 2022 By Ashley Leave a Comment

Some of the best decorated cakes that I have made start with just a basic idea of color scheme, and a theme, or vibe that the cake is meant to convey. I pictured bold, vibrant colors of purple and magenta, with soft complimentary tones for the florals of this cake, with colors of teal, green, blue and burgundy for the cake itself. In this cake decorating texture tutorial, I show you how I made this cake with various mediums and techniques, such as dry dusting, stenciling, and sponge painting to create an aged, textured, and unique cake.

Florals

For this cake, I worked backwards, designing the florals first. I wanted bold, vibrant colors mixed in with softer, tones. Mixing the bold with the soft gives the arrangements depth and allows the eye to see the flowers individually rather than a mass of dark/vibrant color. I’ve included anemones, ranunculus (a favorite of mine), butterfly ranunculus, moth orchids, blossoms and yellow and green leaves.

Textured Fondant

This is the perfect opportunity to use any dried out or cracked fondant. Mixing dried fondant in with fresh or soft fondant will give the cake texture, with splits and visible cracks. I didn’t have much dried fondant on hand, but I used what I had. For additional texture, I used rolled up, then flattened out aluminum foil and pushed it into the cake in random spots on the sides and top of each tier.

Dry Dusting and Layering Color

Dry dusting color onto a cake is all about blending and layering color. Choose colors that look good when blending, taking care to not choose ones that will result in a muddy look. I choose a teal color, navy blue, moss green, olive green, and dark burgundy for accents. Be sure that your dusts are food safe, not just non-toxic so that your cake is safe to eat.

Start with the color that will be the foundational color of your cake. For this cake, I chose teal. So I used a large blush brush (one I use for food only), and dusted the cake tiers. There is no perfect way to do this. Dust heavier in some areas, lighter than others. Repeat with the rest of the colors, overlapping and blending color, except for the burgundy. That is an accent color to be used last.

Once you’ve dry dusted the cake, it should look pretty close to how you want the end result to look. The next couple techniques will darken it a bit and also blend the color a bit more.

Dust small areas with the burgundy dust. I focused on the top and lower edges the most. Use just a little bit a time to build the color and blend. You don’t want super dark areas of burgundy. This color is meant to darken areas and also give more shadow to the cake.

Stenciling

To add even more texture and a bit of elegance to the cake, I stenciled areas of the cake on alternating sides of the tiers. This also doesn’t need to look neat or perfect. I used royal icing for the stencil so that it would dry completely. The stenciling needs to be dry before continuing to dust and sponge paint. I can’t recall where I got the stencil I used for this cake, but this one is pretty close to the same design.

Gold Accents and Sponge Painting

With leftover color from dusting, I mixed in a few drops of high proof alcohol to make a thick paint. Using a cosmetic sponge, lightly paint areas on the cake, focusing in emphasizing already darker areas and also the top and bottom edges.

For the gold accent color, I mixed together gold dust with a little bit of bronze dust. I also used a cosmetic sponge for this, and dry dusted the gold/bronze mixture over the stencil. I chose to dry sponge paint the gold so that it color was more patchy, spaced out and subtle.

At this point, the dusting and painting is done, but you can always go back and dust more color to darken it up or change the color in some areas. Keep adding and blending color to your liking.

If you make a cake using any of the techniques within this tutorial, let me know! Drop a comment or tag me on Instagram. I love seeing your bakes and creations.

Enjoy!

Ash xx

For more tutorials, check out these posts:

Oyster Shell Ocean Cake Tutorial

Still Life Flowers Cake

Floral Piped Royal Icing Cake Tutorial

Under the Sea Cake Tutorial

Still Life Flowers Cake: Mini Tutorial

February 21, 2022 By Ashley Leave a Comment

One of my biggest inspirations in creating sugar art, is art itself. I’m not limited to any type of art, as I find inspiration in art of all kinds, but I do especially love the Dutch masters paintings of still life, particularly flowers. This cake is inspired by such art. If you check out my portfolio or Instagram feed, you’ll see sugar flower arrangements that I have made based on still life art as well. For my Still Life Flowers cake, I wanted to capture the moodiness of those paintings, as well as the vivid, often haphazard floral arrangement, in a variety of colors.

The Fondant

I started with a charcoal/dark eggplant colored fondant. I made my own marshmallow fondant for this project – Sugar Geek Show’s recipe, with 1 tbsp of black gel color. Within the past couple years or so, I’ve really been on a crusade to have less than perfect fondant for all of my cakes. After creating perfect wedding cakes for so long, I’ve embraced imperfection, which 9.5/10 time is a success. Texture, and imperfection is KEY to art and creating.

So, when making this fondant, I didn’t fully melt the marshmallows. I was curious to see what the texture would be like, and weird as it may be, it didn’t disappoint. It created little pockets that the color couldn’t fully saturate, giving the fondant a rough, sort of concrete-like texture when applied to the cake. And so I went with it.

Coloring the fondant

As for the color, many brands of black gel food color tend to have either a green or purple undertone, and I chose one with a purple undertone to achieve the color. To give the tiers a vignette look, I brushed along the bottom and top edges of each tier with a mixture of eggplant, charcoal, and black petal dusts.

Texturing with Stencils

For more texture, and to impart a filigree-like design for a little elegance, I used a stencil and black royal icing. I stenciled each tier, only about 1/2-2/3 of the way around, and alternated which side I stenciled to give the tiers a staggered look. I didn’t perfectly stencil the tiers, I left some gaps and sort of trailed off the stenciling so it didn’t end so abruptly. If you’re unsure about the direction a design is going, proceed with the design as planned, but do it with intention. It makes all the difference.

Placing the Flowers

Once the stenciling was dry, I placed the flowers. I wanted the floral arrangement to be a bit off kilter on the cake. I knew the floral arrangement would be the star, but still wanted the stenciling and bas relief (more on that soon), to really show as well.

I always start with the largest and heaviest sugar flowers first – the peony and David Austin type rose. It’s good to do this so that you can really anchor and secure them in the cake. Placing these flowers also act as a lead for placement for the remaining flowers.

Arranging Sugar Flowers

Then I placed the mid-size one off flowers – the anemone, ranunculus and rose. I only made one of each and wanted them to be seen. Then I placed the iris’, one placed within the arrangement off to the side, then one coming up off the top of the arrangement. I placed the chocolate cosmos – check out my post on chocolate cosmos for a FULL TUTORIAL for those. I added the sugar apricots to the lower left, and the blackberries and blossoms to fill any unflattering negative space.

Lastly one of my favorite additions to any floral arrangement, adding floral components that appear to come off from the cake or give the arrangement any movement. I added some vines with some small leaves and blossoms to give the arrangement some whimsy and flow. I decided not to add any additional leaves and chose to just focus on the flowers for this cake.

Still Life Flowers Cake Finishing Touches

Often times, I will add final cake details after I add the florals, so that those details flow with, or are accentuated by the arrangement. I used the same fondant I used to cover my cakes and some floral moulds I had on hand to create some shallow bas relief. I placed the bas relief around the florals, taking care to not make each tier look too similar. I had no plan for adding the bas relief. I just added it where I thought it would look nice. Avoid symmetry when placing them.

To accentuate the bas relief, I dusted them with a little bit of bronze petal dust. I like how it sort of ages the bas relief and gives it more of an antique look. I totally love the bronze on black and feel like I need to revisit this look in the future on another cake.

So there you have it, a mini tutorial on how I made this cake. If you make a cake using any of the techniques within this Still Life Flowers tutorial, let me know! Drop a comment or tag me on Instagram. I love seeing your bakes and creations.

Enjoy!

Ash xx

For more tutorials, check out these posts:

Floral Piped Royal Icing Cake Tutorial

Under the Sea Cake Tutorial

Vintage Gilded Buttercream Cake Tutorial

Gum Paste Chocolate Cosmos Tutorial

February 15, 2022 By Ashley Leave a Comment

I love chocolate cosmos in floral arrangements on cakes. They’re small, beautiful flowers that have a lot of movement and look great sort of coming off of a cake. They come together fairly quickly, and have a luxurious burgundy color that goes well with most other flowers. These flowers have a unique thread center, with a realistic pollen made with cornmeal and petal dust to make these sugar flowers even more impressive. I made my chocolate cosmos a burgundy color, but you can also give them a dark brown tone, or more of an eggplant color. I always like to refer to a photo of an actual flower when making my sugar flowers to choose the colors I like best for the project I’m working on.

Supplies:

Burgundy gum paste, kneaded with a small amount of vegetable shortening until smooth and pliable

Yellow cornmeal

4 – 26″ gauge floral wire – white (green can be used in a pinch), cut into thirds (you will only need 10 wire total)

Dark green 1/4″ floral tape

white polyester thread

White 1/4″ floral tape (green can be used in a pinch)

Cosmos cutter (I used the smallest one)

Cosmos veiner

Small rolling pin

Firm foam mat

Vegetable shortening

Sugar glue, or egg white

Ball tool

shallow bumpy foam

Petal dusts: burgundy, brown, mustard yellow

Dusting brushes

Small craft pliers

Gum Paste Chocolate Cosmos Tutorial

Make a large hook at the end of two wires with small craft pliers. Create a long loop of thread by wrapping it around four spread fingers 50 times. Twist the loop into a figure 8 shape and fold in half.
Hook the wires onto opposite ends of the folded thread. Tighten the hooks with craft pliers. Wrap each wire with white floral tape, covering the lower 1/8″ of the hooked thread, working the tape all the way down the wire.
Cut the thread in half, right across the center to make two pieces.
Tightly wrap the two sections together. Trim the thread to even out the top.

Roll the burgundy paste on a non stick surface. You want the paste to be thin, but still thick enough to be able to insert wire, about 1/16″. Cut a petal shape with the cosmos cutter.
Dip a wire into glue and insert it 1/2″ into the base of the petal. Gently press the paste neatly around the wire while maintaining the petal shape to ensure the paste is adhered to the wire.
On a foam mat, lengthen and elongate the petal by rolling upwards and along the edges of the petal with the ball tool.
Place the petal into the cosmos petal veiner. Press down firmly to impress.

Place the petal onto shallow, bumpy foam to give the petal a slight curved shape. Leave to dry completely.
Repeat step to make 7 more petals, creating 8 total.
Color the thread center by dusting the center thread and tape with burgundy petal dust.
Combine a small amount of cornmeal with the mustard petal dust to make the pollen for the centers. Mix to combine the color.

Dab the top of the thread with glue with a flat brush. Dip the top of the thread center into the yellow pollen mixture, pressing into the mixture to ensure even coverage. Set aside to dry.
Once the petals have dried, use a small fluffy dusting brush to liberally brush the front and back of the petals with burgundy petal dust.
With the brown petal dust, from the base of the petal, near the wire, dust upwards, 1/3 – 1/2 the way up the petal with brown dust. The dust should be most concentrated at the base of the petal.
Stretch a length of dark green floral tape to activate the stickiness. Evenly space and attach the first four petals to the center, with the base of the petal sitting at the top of the tape of the center.

Tape the remaining four petals around the center, at the same height, spacing them out evenly between the first row of petals.
Finish taping the all the way down the wire.
Gently steam the flower for a few seconds to set the petal dust. Let the flower dry completely before using.

If you make a gum paste chocolate cosmos with my tutorial, let me know! Drop a comment or tag me on Instagram. I love seeing your bakes and creations.

Enjoy!

Ash xx

For more sugar flower tutorials, check out these posts:

Gum Paste Sunflower

Gum Paste Holly and Berries

Gum Paste Dogwood Branch

Gum Paste Blackberries

Gum Paste Sunflower Tutorial

November 9, 2021 By Ashley Leave a Comment

Recently, I was honored to be featured on the cover of the September/October 2021 issue of American Cake Decorating Magazine. While there is a tutorial on how to make the cake in the magazine, there isn’t a tutorial for the large gum paste sunflower, the main focal point of the cake, included with the tutorial. So, after many requests, today I’m sharing tutorial for my gum paste sunflower.

Gum Paste Sunflower Supplies:

2″ styrofoam ball – The type of styrofoam ball you use for this project is important. Avoid the foam used in floral arrangement as they crumble too easy, they are a pain to use and are not sturdy enough. I don’t recommend using these for any sugar flowers.

There are two types of foam balls that are pretty easy to find. Smoothfoam, and more of a generic, softer foam ball. Smoothfoam is too hard to be able to insert the wires into the foam. If all you can find is Smoothfoam, you can punch your holes with a scribe tool before inserting petals. I have linked the foam balls I use.

Foam cutter, or sharp craft blade

Gum paste – light brown, golden yellow, mid-green

Petal dusts – burnt orange, golden yellow, hunter green, brown, dark brown

Dusting brush

Floral wire – 20 gauge (1), 26 gauge (12 wires cut into 5 pieces)

1/4″ width green floral tape

scribe tool

small craft scissors

Exacto knife, or straight edge modeling tool

Ball tool

Small rolling pin

Groove board

Firm foam mat with holes

Dahlia petal cutters – (4.5cm x 2cm) and (3cm x 1cm)

Dahlia veiner, JEM veining tool, or sunflower petal veiner

Daisy cutter

Shortening

Hot glue gun

Sugar glue

Bumpy foam

Step 1: Cut a piece of 20 gauge floral wire in half. Activate the glue in the floral tape by pulling on it gently, and tightly tape the two pieces of wire together.

Step 2: Cut the 2″ styrofoam ball in half with the foam cutter or sharp blade. You only need one half for the sunflower.

Step 3: Lay the 1/2 sphere flat side down and punch a hole in the top of the ball with the floral wire. Fill the hole with hot glue and insert the wire into the ball, pushing the wire through until it just reaches the flat surface. Do not push all the way through. Let the glue dry completely.

Step 4: Knead a small amount of shortening into the golden yellow gum paste until the paste is smooth and pliable. Roll the paste over the groove of a groove board.

Step 5: Gently remove the paste from the board and lay groove side up on a smooth surface. Center the cutter over the groove and cut out the petal.

Step 6: Dip a 26 gauge wire into sugar glue and inset it 1/2″ into the groove. Press the paste neatly around the wire to adhere, being careful to keep the shape of the petal.

Step 7: On the foam pad, thin the edges, elongate and widen the petal with a ball tool.

Step 8: Lay the petal into the veiner, vein side down, and press down on the top of the veiner firmly.

Step 9: Place the petal onto some bumpy foam to dry completely.

Step 10: Repeat steps 4-9 to make 55-60 petals. Give the petals more variety by slightly curving the tips of the petals back and some more forward. Give others a bit more movement by giving them a subtle twist shape. Dry completely.

Step 11: Dust the petals all over with the golden yellow petal dust, focusing on the edges of the petals for most of the color.

Step 12: Dust the base of the petals with the burnt orange petal dust, concentrating more of the color towards the very bottom. Dust the color upward, tapering off the color for an ombre, more blended look.

Step 13: Knead a small amount of shortening into the light brown gum paste until the paste is smooth and pliable. Brush the 1/2 sphere with sugar glue. Smooth the paste onto the 1/2 sphere.

Step 14: Use a ball tool tool to make an indentation in the center. Using a modeling tool or the backside of a sharp blade to small cross hatches over the surface, including the center indentation.

Step 15: With small scissors, snip into the paste at the very edges about 1/4″ deep, making small and delicate cuts, overlapping and layering them to give the edges a frayed look.

Step 16: Dust the entire surface of the sunflower center (don’t forget the backside) with brown petal dust. Dust the edges and the center with the dark brown dust creating a bit of a shadow effect.

Step 17: While the paste is still pliable, insert the petals into the foam ball center. Cut the wires of the petals to 1/2″. Dip the wires in sugar glue, wiping off any excess. Insert the first row of wires into the foam, right behind the frayed edges.

Step 18: Repeat step 17 and place a second row of petals, staggering them in between and behind the first row. Let the sunflower center dry completely.

Step 19: Make the first row of leaves for the calyx. Knead a small amount of shortening into the green gum paste until the paste is smooth and pliable. Roll the paste out on a smooth work surface.

Step 20: Cut out the leaf shape with the small dahlia cutter.

Step 21: Thin the edges of the leaf shape and curve the leaf with the ball tool.

Step 22: Repeat steps 19-21 to make a total of 15 small leaves.

Step 23: Brush each leaf with a small amount of sugar glue and space the leaves around the outer edges of the foam center, behind the last row of sunflower petals.

Step 24: Roll out more green paste over the medium size hole of a firm foam mat with holes. Remove the paste from the mat, and lay stem size up.

Step 25: Center the daisy cutter onto the paste, stem in the center, and cut out the calyx. Place the calyx stem side down into the large hole of the foam mat. Thin and elongate the calyx leaves with a ball tool.

Step 26: Brush the leaves and the center of the calyx with sugar glue. Insert the wire of the sunflower into the center of the calyx, down through the stem of the paste.

Step 27. Adhere the calyx to the center, staggering the calyx leaves in between the first row of leaves.

Step 28: Adhere the stem of the paste to the wire, by twisting the paste onto the wire and blending with your fingers. Let dry upside down completely.

Step 29: Dust the calyx all over with green petal dust. Dust the edges of the leaves of the calyx with a little bit of brown.

Step 30: Steam to set the color.

This does make a large sunflower, but you can make them using smaller foam balls and smaller petal cutters. Note that I use dahlia cutters for this tutorial and not sunflower petals. I think sunflower petal cutters are a bit thin for the sunflower look I’m trying to achieve so I love working with the dahlia cutters. I use these cutters for a few flowers. They’re good to have on hand. I don’t believe in buying cutters for every flower I make so it’s good to repurpose ones you already have.

Remember, unless you are competing, you can still make a realistic and amazing looking sugar flower without having the exact supplies for a specific flower.

If you make a gum paste sunflower with my tutorial, let me know! Drop a comment or tag me on Instagram. I love seeing your bakes and creations.

Enjoy!

Ash xx

For more sugar flower tutorials, check out these posts:

Gum Paste Holly and Berries

Gum Paste Dogwood Branch

Gum Paste Blackberries

How to Make Sugar Flower Petal Formers

May 13, 2021 By Ashley Leave a Comment

Petal formers are a necessary tool in order to give your gum paste or wafer flowers the proper petal shape for a specific flower. There are a variety of commercial petal formers out there but sometimes specific ones can be hard to find and they can be expensive. Especially when you need need a lot of petal formers for multiple flowers.

In this tutorial, I’m going to show you how to make 3 different types of sugar flower petal formers, how you can adapt them and what you can use each former for. These boards are easy to make, fairly inexpensive and the materials are easy to find at your local craft store or Amazon.

Spoon Petal Formers

This is a pretty common former already used in the sugar/wafer paper world. I have boards with both regular plastic spoons and also one with soup spoons. Typical spoons are more oblong and narrow, which work best with petals that are more narrow with a slight cupped shape. I like to use this type of spoon former for drying and shaping anemone petals, rose petals, lisianthus petals, alstroemeria petals and more.

Soup spoons are more rounded and deeper. Great for shaping rounder petals with a more prominent cupped shape. I like using these formers for drying and shaping ranunculus petals, inner gardenia petals, smaller peony petals, English rose petals and more. I find that I use this former more often than the spoon former.

Flower Formers — Spoon Board Petal Fomers

For the spoon boards, you will need: 9×12 piece 1/4″ foam board, cardboard, or fiberboard, a low heat hot glue gun, wire cutters and spoons and/or soup spoons. Cut the handles off of the spoons with the wire cutters. Discard the spoon handles. Place hot glue on the bottom center of the spoon and adhere to the foam core. Be sure to evenly space the spoons. Flip the foam board over and repeat with the soup spoons. You can adjust the formers on the board if you misplace one by gently sliding it in place while the glue is not set.

Foam Ball Petal Formers

I use foam ball formers quite often, mostly for larger cupped petals like magnolia petals, large peonies and English rose petals. You can easily use any size foam balls you would like, but I find that any petals that need to be dried and shaped under 2″, can usually be done on spoons or bumpy foam. It’s not as easy to find formers for much larger size cupped shapes – 2 1/2″, 2 3/4″ and 3″ so I find that smooth foam balls work perfectly.

This board can also be adapted to use egg shaped foam, which are good for making longer and more cupped petals such as tulip petals.

For the foam ball former board, you will need a piece of 1/4″ foam board (or cardboard or fiberboard) – I used 9×12, but you can definitely use a bigger board to add more foam balls or multiple sizes if you would like. You will also need smooth foam balls and low heat hot glue gun. Place a liberal amount of hot glue on the bottom of the foam ball and adhere to the board. Space the balls evenly on the board, leaving space in between for overhanging petals.

Optionally, you can cut the bottoms off of the ball to make it more sturdy against the board. The best way to do this is by using a foam cutter tool that essentially just melts through the foam. Just cut off 1/4″ off the bottom, then glue. Fast and no mess.

Acetate Formers

Think of this former as similar that of an apple tray former. These formers are larger with more shallow wells, perfect for drying and shaping poppy petals, peony petals, Japanese magnolias, orchids, and more. You can form the acetate to make shallow or deep cupped petal formers.

You can use either food safe acetate, usually found in rolls, or you can make these with thin, flexible cutting mats. You can get both of these on Amazon and you can also get the cutting mats at the dollar store.

For this board you will need a 1/4″ piece of foam board, cardboard, or fiberboard, a low heat hot glue gun, and scissors. Cut the acetate into 4″x4″ squares. You can round off the edges if you like ( like I did in the photos) or you can leave them as is.

Cut two cuts in the acetate about 1/2″ opposite each other for a shallow former, or 3/4″ for a deeper former. Place a small dab of glue on one side of the cut, crossing the other side to overlap onto the glue, pressing gently to adhere. Watch your fingers because the glue will be hot. Repeat with the other side of the acetate. Repeat the process with remaining 4″x4″ pieces of acetate.

Place glue on the bottom of the acetate cups and adhere them to the board. Alternatively, you can omit the board and just use them as they are. They’ll be a bit easier to store without the board as well.

If you make these sugar flower petal formers, let me know! Drop a comment or tag me on Instagram. Any questions, feel free to DM me or leave a comment below.

Ash xx

For more tutorials, check out these posts:

Gum Paste Blackberries, Leaves and Blossoms Tutorial

Floral Piped Royal Icing Cake Tutorial

Gum Paste Dogwood Branch Tutorial

Gum Paste Holly and Berries

December 8, 2020 By Ashley Leave a Comment

You asked and I listened – a simple, fast sugar flower tutorial using minimal specialty tools. NO veiner and NO cutter required, but by all means, if you have them, you can totally use them. These fast and easy gum paste holly leaves and berries look gorgeous on a holiday or winter cake, cupcakes and other centerpiece holiday desserts. Make these unwired and with modeling chocolate and put them on a BÃ»che De NoÃ«l. Impressive and so, so beautiful.

Supplies:

Gum paste – mid green and light red

Small rolling pin, like a Celpin

Groove Board, optional

Paper covered floral wire, gauge 28

Moss green 1/4″ floral tape

Petal dusts: bright red, dark green, moss green, golden yellow, brown, black

Egg white

Ball tool

Dresden tool

Firm foam mat, for shaping

Small square of aluminum foil, or holly veiner

Bumpy foam for drying

Paintbrushes for dusting

Small needle nose jewelry pliers

Umbrella modeling tool

Scribe tool, or toothpick

*More sugar flower supplies can be found in the Little Vintage Baking shop*

How to make the berries

1. Prep the berry supplies. Condition the red gum paste by kneading in a small amount of shortening until smooth and pliable.

2. Cut the floral wire into thirds, cutting as many as you need for your arrangement. Use small needle nose pliers to make a small hook on the end of the berry wires.

3. Roll a small ball of red gum paste, like the size of pea. Dip the hooked wire into egg white, removing any excess, and insert halfway into the berry.

4. Make a small indentation into the top center of the berry with the umbrella tool.

5. Make a light “x” shape over the indentation with the scribe tool. Set the berry aside to dry in the foam, and continue to make the remaining berries.

5. Once dry, liberally dust the berries with the bright red petal dust. Dust the centers of the berry (with the indentation and “x”) with the black dust. Just a small amount.

6. To set the color and remove the chalky appearance of the dusted berries, quickly wave the berries through the steam of a tea kettle, an iron, or a steamer. Take care to not burn yourself. The steam is very hot and can burn you. Set aside to dry.

How to make the holly

1. Prep the holly supplies. Condition the green gum paste by kneading in a small amount of shortening until smooth and pliable. Cut the floral wire into thirds, cutting as many as you need for your arrangement.

2. Roll a small piece of green gum paste over the groove of a groove board. Don’t roll the paste too thin as you need to be able to stretch and thin it it out to shape it.

If you are not using a groove board, roll the paste out on a non stick surface. You want it thick enough to be able to insert a wire without it poking through the leaf.

3. Remove the paste from the groove board and set the paste down, groove side up.

4. Center a holly cutter over the groove, and cut out the leaf.

If you are not using a holly leaf cutter, use a very sharp, brand new blade exacto knife to cut out the shape of a holly leaf. Refer to photos online, or my holly above to cut out the correct shape. These do not have to be perfect or all the same shape and size. Remember, nature is imperfect.

5. Dip the end of a wire in egg white, wiping off the excess. Insert the wire into the groove of the leaf, about halfway up.

If you didn’t use a groove board, place the holly leaf between you thumb and pointer finger. With your other hand, insert the wire into the leaf, between your fingers so that you’re sort of guiding the wire into the leaf without it poking through the paste.

6. Place the leaf groove side down on a firm foam mat. Use the ball tool to thin the surface of the leaf and the edges, stretching the pointy tips of the leaf.

7. Take a small piece of aluminum foil and crumple it up into a ball. Smooth out and flatten the foil, being careful not to rip it too much.

8. Place the leaf onto the foil. Fold the foil in half over the leaf and press lightly to make some subtle veining on both sides of the leaf.

9. Use the thin side of a dresden tool to draw a straight line from tip to bottom of the leaf. Make a few light veins on either side.

10. Point the tips of the holly leaf by pinching gently with your fingertips. Shape them a bit by slightly bending the tips down or up to give them some realism.

11. Place the leaves onto some bumpy foam to dry completely.

12. Once dry, dust the leaves. Dust the center vein with the golden yellow dust.

13. Liberally dust the remaining front side of the leaf with the dark green dust.

14. Make a 50/50 blend of the dark green and moss green. Liberally dust the backside of the leaf.

15. Mix a small amount (50/50) of dark green and brown. Lightly dust the tips of the leaf to define the tips and slightly darken them.

16. To set the color and remove the chalky appearance of the leaves, quickly wave the leaves through the steam of a tea kettle, an iron, or a steamer. Take care to not burn yourself. The steam is very hot and can burn you. Set aside to dry before arranging.

17. Stretch a length of floral tape to activate the glue. Individually tape the berries and leaves, taping about halfway down the wire.

18. Assemble your arrangement as desired.

If you make an arrangement using my gum paste holly and berries tutorial, be sure to leave me a comment or tag me on Instagram!

Ash xx

For more gum paste tutorials, check out these posts:

Gum Paste Blackberries, Leaves and Blossoms

Gum Paste Peony

Gum Paste Magnolia Branch

Floral Piped Royal Icing Cake Tutorial

September 3, 2020 By Ashley 8 Comments

I’ll admit, piping techniques on cakes are not my strongest skill set. I can pipe all sorts of borders, sure, but any sort of piped design, lambeth techniques or flowers, count me out. I’m most definitely a work in progress with those techniques, but with this cake, I discovered a piping technique that I love. Not only is it easy, but it doesn’t have to be absolutely perfect. A little whimsy is preferred here. This easy floral piped royal icing cake is easier than you think and the options with this technique are endless.

Supplies

Fondant covered cakes (My cakes are 6×5, 8×5, 10×5 and 12×5)

Royal icing – stiff and piping consistencies, either white or light yellow

Edible gold dust

Clear high proof alcohol, or clear extract

Fine detail paint brush

#2 piping tips

Piping bags

Edible marker

Ascending bead mould

Variety of petal cutters – your preference (I used peony cutters)

Circle cutters (I used 1/2″ and 1″ cutters)

Plotting out the space for the piping and the beading designs

Before creating the flower design and piping, measure the out the space where the piping, and the bead design will go.

For the 6″, measure 3 1/2″ across the middle of the tier with a ruler, and used an edible black marker to make a small mark the middle, at 1 3/4″. Use the marker to then draw a little line at 0 and 3 1/2″. Now the top tier will be the guide on centering all of the other tiers. You can see an example of my lines in the upper right corner of the photo below.

For the 8″, place the ruler up to the center mark on the 6″, vertically, so that the ruler is straight up and down against the 8″ tier as well. Mark a small dot on the fondant to note the center of the 8″. Place the ruler horizontally onto the 8″ tier now, placing the ruler on the center dot at 2 1/4″. Place another small dot at 0 and 4 1/2″.

Repeat the same process for the 10″ tier, marking small spots with the marker at the center at 2 3/4, and on either side at 0 and 5 1/2.

Repeat the same process for the 12″ tier, marking small spots with the marker at the center of 3 1/4″, and on either side a 0 and 6 1/2″

The center mark keeps the design centered down each tier, and the marks to either side indicate the size space of the design, and also indicates where the bead design will go.

Impressing the cake with petal cutters

I decided to use (2) peony petal cutters to make the general floral pattern. I wanted to use the peony petals to match the large peony that I created for the floral topper arrangement. I also like the frilliness of the petals. You can use any cutters that you prefer. Note that the fondant on your cake to still be soft enough to be able to make an impression. In addition to using the peony cutters, I used (2) small circle cutters as well to indicate the flower centers.

Impress the flower centers first. Use a light hand, and only just make a faint outline. Place a full flower here and there if you wish, but make it look more organic by only impressing parts of flowers. Be sure to cover the center mark with the flowers, but do not impress beyond the two outer lines on the tier. Remember, this is where the beaded design will go.

Floral piped royal icing

Once you have made the faint petal impressions, prepare your piping bags for the floral piped royal icing technique. Make one icing bag with piping consistency royal icing, and another with stiff royal icing. Set the stiff bag aside, and fit the piping consistency bag with a #2 tip. Outline the flower petals with the piping royal icing. Add extra frills to the edges if you like, just remember it doesn’t have to be perfect. If you make a mistake, use a toothpick to scrape off the icing. Make some veining lines in the centers of each flower petal, coming from the center of the petal or from the outer edge. Be sure to not overlap the side lines. Stay within the designated area or you will be scraping off dry royal icing later.

After piping the flower petals, pipe the centers. Fit the stiff royal icing piping bag with a #2 piping tip. Pipe little dots in the centers. Go beyond the circle to create more imperfect circles. Overlap some of the dots to give the center a bit more of a pop and some depth. Let all the piping dry completely before painting.

How to make the beading effect

An ascending drop string of beads mould is needed to make the beading. You can find them at Michael’s Craft Store and Iron Orchid Designs (find a retailer near you, or a retailer online on their website – the Acanthus mould). I used the IOD mould for this cake. The string of beads on this mould are exactly 5″ so I used one full string on each tier, on either side of the piping, to create a straight line on both sides. Make (2) for each tier, and let dry for 10 minutes so they’re not too soft. Adhere the beads to the cake with water, in ascending order, with the largest bead at the bottom of the cake tier.

Design the rest of the beaded design on a silicone mat so that you have a guide, and can make them all identical. Since the moulds are going to be a bit different depending on what mould you have, it’s best to use the photos in this post as a guide to make them as similar as possible.

Painting the royal icing

Create a gold paint by adding alcohol to the gold dust until a thick paint forms. You don’t want this too thin, as it could drip and won’t have much coverage, but not too thick, that clumps of gold are left behind. You can also use Edible Arts gold paints as a substitute. Use a fine paintbrush to carefully paint the royal icing.

So, this is a do as I say, not do as I do sort of moment. I painted the gold BEFORE adding the beads. Oof. Spare yourself the mess of gold dust flake off, by painting the icing gold AFTER adding the beads.

Finishing touches

Leave the cake as it is, in its elegant simplicity, or with a sugar flower arrangement on top, as I did. To get remove any excess flour from the fondant or any random gold dust, lightly steam the cake with a steamer. You don’t want the fondant to appear wet or get warm, so just a little bit of steam will do the trick. The tutorial for my peony featured on this cake is listed below.

I hope you love this tutorial as much as I have loved creating it. Any questions, be sure to leave them below or DM me on Instagram. If you use any of these techniques in this floral piped royal icing cake, I’d LOVE to see your creations. Tag me on Instagram!

Ash xx

For more cake decorating tutorials, check out these posts:

Under the Sea Cake Tutorial

Vintage Gilded Buttercream Cake Tutorial

Woodland Tree Stump Cake Tutorial

Gum Paste Peony Tutorial

Vintage Gilded Buttercream Cake Tutorial

August 5, 2020 By Ashley 1 Comment

After working with mostly fondant over the years, I’ve been playing around with buttercream a lot lately, and I’m loving it. I love the messy nature of buttercream, where flaws and rustic application can make a design look stunning. Buttercream doesn’t take itself too seriously. It’s delicious and adaptable, and wild like nature, imperfect, and more often than not, celebrated for its messiness. Perfectly iced buttercream cakes won’t be found in this post – in a different post another time, I’m sure. And so, I’ve created this buttercream beauty for a giveaway with Iron Orchid Designs over on my Instagram feed. I know you guys have heard me talk about these fab products before, but this time, I’m using them on buttercream. My vintage gilded buttercream cake incorporates easy and fast buttercream techniques that can be adapted to almost any buttercream cake design.

How to create rough edge buttercream

The color of this bottom tier is one of my favorites. I’m obsessed with this wine color buttercream. I have made this color plenty of times using gum paste, and I wanted to recreate the color to use as the bottom tier of my cake. To color this tier, I used both oil based candy color and gel color. I mixed equal parts of red and purple candy color, and added a touch of black gel color. Mix the purple and red first and let the buttercream develop for a few hours. Check out my post on How to Color Buttercream to see my techniques on how to achieve dark and vibrant colors. Then add a bit of black to just darken the buttercream a few shades. Keep in mind, the buttercream will darken a bit as it sits.

The top two tiers have a base color of dusty cream. To achieve this color, I mixed small, equal amounts of Americolor soft brown and ivory. My ivory gel color has a bit of an orange hue, so I mix the ivory with the soft brown to lessen the warm undertones.

The rough edge buttercream look has been super popular since Megan and Harry’s royal wedding cake. It’s also super easy to achieve. Rough edged buttercream is a total time saver – no need to use acrylics or the upside down method for a perfectly smooth top.

After filling and crumb coating the cake, chill the cake until it’s firm, for a couple hours or so. Smooth buttercream over the top of the cake, smoothing it out past the edges. Coat the sides of the cake with buttercream, layering it on, especially towards the top. How much buttercream you bulk up at the top edges of the cake will determine how tall and thick the rough edges are. Use a bench scraper to scrape off the excess and smooth the sides. Don’t worry about perfectly smooth buttercream, as I said before, imperfect is what we’re going for in this design. Chill the cakes, only chilling the top two tiers for about 5 minutes. You want the buttercream to set just slightly to keep it in place when adding additional colors on top. You do not want the buttercream to fully set up, as it can change color when scraping the cake. This is particularly true with buttercream based buttercream.

Creating the watercolor buttercream effect

On the top two tiers, under the gold stamped design, is a minimal buttercream watercolor effect. Both shades were created using very little amounts of claret gel color by ProGel. With a small offset spatula or a palette knife, place patches of buttercream around the cake, starting with the darker color. Use a bench scraper to even out the color around the cake. Add the lighter color, then repeat with the darker color until you’re satisfied with the color. I chose lighter colors for this cake so that the colors sort of blend together for a minimal, blended watercolor effect.

When choosing colors for the watercolor technique, you want to be sure that the colors look good together and will also blend well. You don’t want the colors to mix together and turn strange and unappetizing colors. I like to use buttercream colors that are made with the same combination of gel colors, or colors that are made by combining different buttercream colors together. Chill the watercolor cakes until the buttercream is firm. The buttercream needs to be thoroughly cold in order to stamp the pattern onto the cake, otherwise the buttercream will stick to the stamp, or squish out the sides.

Creating the vintage stamped effect

The stamp set that I used is the rose toile stamp from Iron Orchid Designs. I also used a craft brayer roller, mine is from Iron Orchid, but this one works well too. You will need parchment paper, or wax paper, and gold edible paint. I recommend this one, or you can create a gold paint with edible gold dust and a clear alcohol. If you choose to make your own, you will need more than half of a small pot of gold dust. Mix the alcohol with the dust until you it’s a thicker liquid. It needs to be thick enough to coat the stamp, but thin enough to be able to easy transfer to the cake.

Roll the craft roller through the edible paint. Roll off any excess, then roll over the stamp to coat. Do not saturate the stamp so that’s dripping, but ensure that the stamp is damp with color. Carefully lift the stamp and place against the cake. Carefully, and lightly press to the cake, taking care not to press IN to the cake, though it’s likely you will get some pressed in impressions. This is totally ok – it goes with the vintage design. Gently and lightly run your fingers over the stamp to stamp the pattern onto the cake.

You can also use the roller to roll over the stamp. I use this method when using the stamp on a flat surface, like a cookie, or paneled fondant or if I am trying to achieve full design coverage with the stamp. For this cake, I went with a more aged, almost peeling vintage-y look. I achieved this look by pressing over the stamp in select areas, leaving some spots light or bare. Then take a fine paintbrush and go over any areas you would like darkened, or more filled in.

Let the stamped impressions dry before stacking the cakes. After stacking the cakes, add any florals. For this cake, I used gum paste/sugar heirloom roses, anemones, roses, heritage roses, petunias, blossoms, and rose leaves. Use any flowers that compliment your color scheme, or even skip flowers – the cake is beautiful enough on its own!

For more cake tutorials, check out these posts:

Woodland Tree Stump Tutorial

Mini Tutorial: Romantic Roses Cake

Mini Tutorial: White on White Baroque Cake

Gum Paste Dogwood Branch Tutorial: Part Two

June 17, 2020 By Ashley 1 Comment

Here we are at part two of the dogwood branch tutorial. In part one, I covered how to make the dogwood bracts, centers, leaves and small buds. This second, and final part of the tutorial will cover making the blooming buds, dusting the flowers, buds and leaves, then compiling the arrangement along with some final touches. You can find part one of the dogwood branch tutorial here.

Make the blooming dogwood buds:

1. Make a cone shape with a small piece of white gum paste. Place the tapered end into the second smallest hole of a foam pad with holes (Mexican Hat method).

2. Roll the paste thinly over the hole. Carefully remove the paste from the hole and place flat side down, stem side up. Center a 4 petal cutter over the stem of the paste. Cut out the flower. Remove any stray pieces of paste by running your finger along the edge of the cutter.

3. Place the flower stem back into the second smallest hole of the foam pad. Use a ball tool to elongate and cup of each petals.

4. Remove the flower from the pad. Brush a small amount of sugar glue in the center and bottom edges of each petal. Insert the wire of a dogwood center through the center of the flower, taking care to guide the wire down through the stem.

5. Cup the tightly petals around the center.

6. Hang the buds upside down to dry completely.

Dust the dogwood centers:

1. Dust the centers liberally with moss green petal dust.

2. With a small bit of burgundy, lightly dust a few areas of the center to give it a bit more of a realistic look and a bit more depth.

Dust the dogwood bracts:

*Be sure to apply dust sparingly as you dust the bracts. The goal is to build and layer color. This is how you make sugar flowers look more real. You can add more color, but you cannot remove it once it is on.

1. Lightly dust the center edge (the indentation we made) of the bracts with moss green.

2. Lightly dust very edge of the indentation with the brown dust, right over the edge of the moss green. The color should look gradient with a fine brown edge that continues to moss green.

3. Along the edges of the bract, with the exception of the center indented edge, and about a third of the way down the sides of the bract, very lightly dust with the dusty pink. Brush from the edges towards the center so that the color tapers off. The edges should be where the majority of color is. You’re going to be inclined to be a bit heavy handed here, but don’t. Less is more.

Dust the blooming dogwood buds:

1.Liberally dust the gum paste “stem” of the bud, tapering the color upwards, about halfway up the flower. You want the color to be darkest at the base of the flower nearest the wire.

2. Dust the base of the flower nearest the wire with brown, about 1/4″ up from the bottom of the bud.

3. Lightly dust the edges of the flower bud with dusty pink, dusting downwards to create a gradient of color, about 1/4″ down.

4. Just the very edges with moss green to mute the pink and give it more of blooming appearance.

Dust the small buds:

1. Liberally dust the small buds with moss green dust.

2. At the base of the buds, near the stem, liberally dust with brown dust about 3/4 of the way up from the bottom.

Dust the leaves and tape the wires:

1. Liberally dust front and back of the leaves with rose leaf green.

2. Activate the glue of the moss green tape by stretching the tape. Tightly tape the wires of the blooming buds, and larger leaves with the tape, finishing about halfway down the wire.

3. Tape a small leaf beside each small bud, taping about halfway down the wires.

Compile the dogwood flower:

1. Place the bracts two at a time, opposite each other, underneath a dogwood center, and tape with moss green floral tape. Place the remaining two bracts underneath and on opposite sides of the first two, and tape all the way down the wire. If you are using two different size bracts, place the larger ones first, opposite each other. Then place the smaller two opposite each other, underneath the larger two.

Create the individual stems of the branch:

1.For the first stem, tape together two of the small buds, staggering them so they’re not too close together, with the twig brown tape.

2. Tape two leaves onto the stem, also staggering them.

3. Finish the stem by taping on one of the dogwood flowers. Continue to tape all the way down the stem. Set aside.

4. For the second stem, tape a blooming bud to a small bud, staggering them so they’re not too close together.

5. Tape two leaves to the stem, opposite each other and slightly staggered, followed by an additional leaf. Tape all the way down the stem. Set aside.

6. Create the main branch by taping together a blooming bud with a leaf, staggering them.

7. Add another leaf to the stem. About 2″ down from the leaf, add the second stem ( the stem with the small and blooming bud).

8. Tape the stem with the flower to the main branch, about 3″ down.

9. Tape a 20 gauge wire to the branch, just below the flower. This will reinforce the branch and keep the branch from toppling over.

10.Tape an additional flower to the branch, followed by a leaf.

11. Add the third and final flower to the branch, taping all the way down the wires. Cut off any excess wire. You want to leave about 5″-6″ inches of stem to be able to insert the arrangement into a cake.

Final touches and finishing the arrangement:

12. Dust the branch with a combination of the leaf green, and brown dusts to blend the areas where the two different color tapes meet. This will make the colors look gradient and the branch more realistic.

13. Use a travel steamer or a tea kettle to *carefully* steam the arrangement to set the color. Be careful not to burn your fingers in the steam. Just carefully wave the arrangement through the steam to remove the chalky appearance. You don’t want the arrangement to look wet – you just need minimal steam. Let the arrangement dry completely.

Many of the techniques shared in this tutorial can apply to many other flowers and flower arrangements. For more tutorials and resources, check out these posts:

Essential Tools for Making Sugar Flowers

Gum Paste Peony Tutorial

Gum Paste Blackberries, Leaves and Blossoms Tutorial

Gum Paste Dogwood Branch Tutorial: Part One

June 17, 2020 By Ashley 3 Comments

When the flowering dogwood trees start blooming, it’s a sign that Spring has sprung. These beauties are mostly seen as white, or white with tinges of pink, but they also can be found in light pink, bright pink and rarely, yellow shades. For this dogwood branch tutorial, I’ve made my favorite color dogwood flower – white with a touch of pink. In this tutorial, I’ll take you through how to make the dogwood flower centers, and bracts (petals), two different stages of buds and some leaves to create a beautiful, multi-stemmed dogwood branch.

The cutters, veiners and center molds are from Sweet Art Master, and they are absolutely fabulous to work with. The bract cutters make super clean cuts, and the veiners are botanically correct and super detailed. I’ve purchased many veiners over the years that are subpar – whether the paste sticks to them, the veining impression is too light or the veining is not very detailed. The veiners from Sugar Art Master work perfectly. The center moulds are not only time savers, but they are detailed, botanically correct and easy to use.

Supplies:

Gum Paste – white, light avocado green, leaf green

Floral Wire – gauges 22, 26, 20 (cut into thirds) – white is recommended for the flowers, but for the other components, green or white will work

1/4″ Floral Tape – moss green, twig brown

Cutters: Sweet Art dogwood petal cutters , Sweet Art Master dogwood leaf cutters, small olive or ruscus leaf cutter (3/4-1″), 4-petal flower cutter (I used a hydrangea cutter)

Veiners: Sweet Art Master dogwood petal veiner, Sweet Art Master dogwood leaf veiners

Molds: Sweet Art Master dogwood center mold

Petal Dusts: moss green, burgundy, dusty pink, brown, rose leaf green

Sugar Glue

Cornstarch

Groove Board

Firm Foam Pad (with holes)

Rolling Pin

Ball Tool

Dresden Tool

Bumpy foam

Firm foam, for drying

Brushes, for dusting

Make the dogwood flower centers:

1. Fill the two cavities of mold with the avocado green paste, using a dresden tool to push in the paste, making sure to completely fill all of the mold.

2. Make a hook at the end of two pieces of 22-gauge floral wire. Dip each of the hooked wires in sugar glue, wiping off any excess glue. Insert the hooked wires into each of the centers.

3. Use a dresden tool to push the paste around the wire, covering up the wire insertion point and cleaning up any paste overflowing the mold cavities.

4. Place the mold in the freezer for 25-30 minutes to firm up the paste. This is necessary to be able to successfully remove the center from the mold.

5. Remove the paste from the mold by peeling the mold away from the wired center and removing carefully. Set the centers in foam to dry overnight. You will need 6 centers total for this arrangement.

Make the dogwood flower bracts:

1. Roll white paste over a groove on a groove board. You should be able to just start to see the line through the paste. You don’t want the bracts to be too thin.

2. Remove the paste from the groove board and flip the paste over so that it is groove side up. Center the bract cutter over the groove and press firmly to cut out the bract. Remove any stray pieces of paste from the cutter by running your finger along the edge of the cutter.

3. Dip a piece of 26 gauge floral wire into sugar glue, wiping off any excess. Insert the wire into the groove of the bract.

4. Groove side down on the foam pad, use a ball tool to thin the edges of the bract.

5. Place the bract into the bottom (green) part of the veiner. Place the yellow part of the veiner on top and press firmly to vein.

6. Lay the bract on the foam pad. Using the thick side of a dresden tool, push the tool into to the top/center of the bract to create an indentation. Place the dresden tool on the edge of the indentation and lightly scrape some of the paste away. This gives the bracts more of an aged and realistic look.

7. Place the bract over some bumpy foam to dry. Place some bracts curved in, some peeled back, some more flat, depending on the stages of bloom you want your flowers to be in. I made one flower with bracts more peeled away to represent more of an over bloomed flower, one flower with bracts more flat, with only a slight curve at the edges of the bract, and one flower with curved in petals to make a newly blooming flower. You will need 4 bracts for each flower (12 total for this arrangement). Let the bracts dry completely on the foam.

*You can make all of your bracts the same size using just one cutter, or you can use 2 different sized cutters (one larger, one smaller) to make a slightly offset flower. I used the smaller cutter to make 2 bracts, and the larger cutter to make 2 bracts for each flower.*

Make the leaves:

1. Roll out a piece of leaf green paste over the groove on a groove board. Remove the paste and lay the paste groove side up on the board.

2. Center the dogwood leaf cutter over the center of the groove and cut out the leaf. Remove any stray pieces of paste by running your finger along the edge of the cutter.

3. Dip a piece of 26 gauge floral wire into sugar glue, wiping off any excess. Insert the wire into the groove of the leaf.

4. Place the leaf into the bottom (green) part of the veiner. Place the yellow part of the veiner on top and press firmly to vein.

5. Lay the leaves on bumpy foam to dry, shaping them with a little bit of curve to make them look a bit more realistic.

*You can make a variety of both small and larger leaves, or all one size. You will need 8-9 leaves. I made 3 larger leaves, and 5 smaller.

Make the small buds:

1.Make a hook at the end of a piece of 26 gauge floral wire. Using the avocado green paste, roll a small piece into a cone shape. Dip the hooked wire into sugar glue, wiping off excess.

2.Insert the wire into the larger end of the cone shape. Work the paste onto the wire so that it is firmly adhered. Leave a little bit of the paste tapered off the bottom of the bud.

3. Shape the bud by tapering off the end to a dull point. Slightly bend the tip of the buds over so it looks like they’re leaning just a little. Set aside in foam to dry completely.

*Make a variety of sizes from super small to a bit larger, but keep them smaller than 5/8″. You will need 3 small buds total.

4. Repeat steps 1-5 of making the leaves, using the small leaf cutter (1″) to create the small leaves of the buds. You will need 3 small leaves total.

*PART TWO: LARGER BUDS, DUSTING, AND COMPILING THE ARRANGEMENT*

For other sugar flower tutorials, check out these posts:

Gum Paste Peony

Gum Paste Blackberries, Leaves and Blossoms

Gum Paste Olive Branch