Flowers

You need the proper tools - just like you need the proper tools for buttercream roses, if you don't have a pastry bag and a rose tip, your success at making roses is slim.

Wilton sells a gumpaste flower kit with an assortment of cutters and a book with directions to make each flower.

Trying to explain a technique for making gumpaste flowers on a message board is not practical. The tips I can give are - Practice, patience and don't let the gumpaste dry out.

Chef Jo

you need to buy some gadgets

Go to wilton website or Nicholas Lodge website and look for a kit for flowers.
Maybe you'll want a dvd with instructions too.
I don't see how you can do them without getting these tools
Good luck!

Gadgets are NOT needed for gumpaste roses as Petals quickly showed me. I am a complete novice and managed to make some stunning roses on my first try, they will only get better with practice.

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VqoRBYuzok0&feature=youtu.be

You may not use the recommended tools to make them, but they will certainly improve ease, consistency and time needed if you have them. When I was first learning, I used a piece of sponge, and a smallish piece of a dowel rod.  Of course, since this is now my career, I invested an entire 6.00 for a gumpaste kit off ebay, and I can crank those babies out.  6.00 is not a huge investment to cut your time by about 75%.  :)  

I enjoyed your pics in the gallery PastryPassion, beautiful work.

 

Gumpaste roses.....its a niche that boils down to what the client is willing to pay for.

 

I can spend 5 minutes making an awesome rose by hand or I can spend an hour with all the different wires, dusts, veining pads, tools, etc..... and charge the client $$ a rose. Have you ever heard of Alan Dunn ? His work is timeless, technique , just spot on.

 

@ SenorPartagas , I know you are honing your sugar art. The more detail you put into a rose the better quality the work.

 

There are so many avenues in cooking & baking & decorating......one never stops learning.

 

Petals.

Many thanks Petalsandcoco, I enjoyed looking through your pics as well.  Love the stargazer lily.  Yes...the job certainly depends on how much the client is paying.  I prefer the intricate type work, but not many actually want that anymore.  Fuss and circumstance.  lol  My preference.  I just wanted to let Senor know, that a simple tool kit is a very cheap, but a very helpful part of the process.  :)

The cakecentral.com forums have TONS of tutorials on just about anything you want to learn.

Best of all, free to join!

Can this gumpaste be used over and over to practice with? Or does it become hard the more you work with it? 

It's pliable when you manipulate it, but as soon as you form a leaf or a petal and mold / attach it , it will start to harden. It's always good to cover your gumpaste with plastic wrap or place it in an air tight container when not in use.
Gum paste has the texture of playdoh. I like to put a bit of shortening on my fingertips , this keeps it soft and manageable as gum paste can be a tad sticky at times.
Sugar work can last for a very long once it's dried.

Petals

 

Dumb question. Do you think practicing with Play-doh would be a bad idea? As in it is similar but still different in a sense that once you switch to gumpaste, you have to learn a slightly new technique due to texture, thickness, etc. 

It's a good question ! When I decided to craft my flowers I knew it was not going to be easy. Something I did do was make a batch of cold porcelain ( cooking glue and baby oil) . Sounds terrible but the texture is fantastic . Play doh is another texture you can work with, giving the right "feel" in your hands. As soon as you think your ready for sugar , switch to gum paste or fondant.
Like many crafts out there, you just need some time and patience , and of course practice.

Petals.

Thanks for the advice! 

I am pretty much hopeless with getting my gumwork flowers to look like anything but the "fantasy" type.

Had a tip on a 'caker" site that you can snag a 40% off coupon from Hobby Lobby (print off their website) and get a fair amt of gumpaste for around $5 and set my engineer hubs to work (damn he's detail oriented!!!).

Petals....with the play dough...were you able to smooth and ruffle edges with it?

If so, my 10 year old grand will be put to work immediately learning some simple roses and callas (hopefully he will enjoy this and the Hubs can be relieved of deco duty, lol)

I have worked mostly with the cold porcelain . With it you can do pretty much anything as you would with gum paste. Alan Dunn teaches this in his courses and books. The recipe for cold porcelain is on the net , there are many. You can make and design just about anything with it, using tools etc. cold porcelain mimics gum paste for drying time whereas play doh does not. Play doh is good to work with if you have never worked/or have no knowledge of gum paste or fondant. You can work with it to get the feel of shaping things, especially flowers.
I get my supplies here in Mtl, a drive away. I have bought some of my specialty items through the business I took my classes from. There is a thread on sugar craft.com , in that there are some excellent places to buy supplies from.

Petals.

Petals... have never "spoken" to anyone that has actually worked this interesting medium.

However, just by looking at the pix, I can tell it takes color well and is pretty versatile (see why they call it porcelain, some of the example pieces were breathtaking).

Will note some recipes for my deco guy and see what he thinks.

Don't do so much baking these days, however have a few bdays and one wedding coming up and they are all expecting massive creations (I call them hunk o'cakes, lol) as gifts.

May I PM you if I get in a bind?

OBTW...  any other fave sites I could save for reference?

 

mimi

You can pm anytime. While most clients don't eat the art work , it's my policy to make sure all sugar craft is edible on the cake. (including ink)

Has anyone ever used cold porcelain decorations on cakes ? I am sure they do , but just hope it does not come into contact with the cake . It's nice that one is able to keep their decorations in pristine condition long after an event has ended.

Ps. I try to look for embossed pieces , mostly in metal, especially leaves. Just roll out the gum paste , lay it on top , press for indentation ( afix wire if needed) cut and trim edges, color and highlight with edible dust, done. This saves a lot of time when it comes to veining.
You can buy pads with veiner as well if you prefer (they have them for both the leaf and the petal) . Just some thoughts.....

Petals.

Thanks , Petals!

"They" say that CP is not suitable for consumption, but that's ok as I always try to have a moisture barrier between cake and deco anyway.

So afraid that someone may bite into a piece of rock hard deco that may have broken off and be served to someone.

 

mimi