#TLDR Sugar flowers are petals shaped from gumpaste (or a gumpaste-fondant mix), dried until they hold a curve, then assembled. Gumpaste dries harder and thinner than fondant, so it is the paste to use for realistic roses and blossoms. Start with simple, unwired flowers. Work small pieces, keep the rest covered, and give petals hours (often overnight) to dry before you attach them to a cake.
- Gumpaste vs fondant
- Tools for a first flower
- Simple unwired blossom
- A beginner rose
- Drying, colour and attaching
Gumpaste vs fondant
Fondant is for covering cakes. It stays soft. Gumpaste (also sold as gum paste or flower paste) is fondant's stiffer cousin: extra gum so you can roll it paper-thin and it dries firm. That is why wedding cakes use gumpaste roses rather than fondant petals that droop in a warm kitchen.
You can mix a little gumpaste into fondant for leaves and simple blossoms. Pure gumpaste is better for wired petals. Cake Journal's gum paste flower tutorial is a good picture of the simple, centre-pearl style many beginners start with.
Decorated Treats teach simple non-wired gum paste flowers that sit on cupcakes without floral wire. Start there if you have never opened a petal cutter.
Shop icing and fondant for both covering paste and flower paste, and keep a small tub of edible pearls for centres.
Tools for a first flower
You need less than a full florist kit:
- Flower paste and a little vegetable shortening so it does not crack
- A small rolling pin and cornflour or icing sugar for dusting
- Petal or blossom moulds and cutters
- A ball tool and foam pad to thin petal edges
- Edible glue or a dab of water
- Optional: floral wire and tape for larger roses
A silicone veiner or blossom mould speeds things up if you do not want to hand-thin every petal. Keep a cup of water and a small brush nearby. Work one flower at a time. Gumpaste skins over in minutes on the bench.
Simple unwired blossom
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Knead a grape-sized ball of gumpaste until smooth. Keep the rest wrapped.
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Roll it thin. Cut five petals or use a small blossom cutter.
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On a foam pad, run a ball tool from the centre of each petal out to the edge so the edge frills slightly.
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Cup the centre. Glue a sugar pearl or a tiny ball of yellow paste in the middle.
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Dry in a curved former (an egg carton well or a spoon) so the flower is not flat.
That is a cupcake flower. Repeat in white, blush and a deeper pink using dusts and glitters once dry, or colour the paste first with a tiny amount of gel from our food colouring range.
A beginner rose
Wired roses take practice. A beginner rose can be a cone of paste with petals wrapped around it, as in many gumpaste rose walkthroughs.
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Shape a small cone and let it firm.
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Cut four to five petals. Thin the top edge of each.
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Wrap the first petal around the cone as a tight bud. Overlap the next petals, rolling the top edge out as you go.
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Attach each petal with a little glue at the base only. If you wet the whole petal it collapses.
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Stand the rose in a bottle or floral foam to dry. Do not lay it on its side.
Leave it overnight. Soft roses squash when you move them.
Drying, colour and attaching
Thin petals often feel dry on the surface in an hour and still bend at the base. Overnight is safer in humid coastal weather. Fully dried gumpaste flowers keep for months in a cardboard box away from steam and sunlight. Do not fridge them; condensation ruins the finish.
Dust colour after drying. Petal dusts look more natural than mixing a strong gel through the whole paste. A dry brush of lustre on the petal edge is enough for a wedding cake.
Attach flowers to buttercream with a little leftover buttercream. On fondant, use edible glue or a small sausage of paste as a nest. Never push floral wire straight into a cake that will be eaten. Use a posy pick or a food-safe straw, then drop the wired stem into the pick.
If you want an easier floral look while you practise, edible flowers and wafer paper sit well next to a few handmade blossoms.
Conclusion
Sugar flowers are thin gumpaste petals, dried in a curve, then assembled. Fondant is too soft for realistic petals on its own. Start with unwired blossoms, then try a wrapped rose. Give them a full dry, dust the colour last, and isolate any wire from the cake crumb.
Pick up flower paste, cutters and moulds with your next cake decorating supplies order, or visit us in Tweed Heads and we will point you to a starter set.