I finished Wilton III! I know this may not seem like a big deal to you, but this was my third attempt at this class. It is a huge deal for me. My lily nail flowers suck, but whatever. I’m loving the gum paste flowers better than the butter cream versions. I think I may take the advanced class one day. It’s a little pricey.
Anyhoo, here’s how I got to the above cake. Well ... it’s not a real cake; it’s Styrofoam covered in fondant. Start with a mat an your fondant.
Knead in a little Gum-Text or another type of gum and your icing color. Let me say now that none of my colors turned out the way I wanted them. I worked it out with a ribbon to pull everything together.
After kneading, roll the fondant out very thin. Work quickly. (This will be an ongoing theme.)
Next, use the smallest flower cutter and cut several shapes.
Take two or three and roll them into a teardrop shape. Make sure the others are covered with plastic wrap. (This is another theme.)
Dip a toothpick into shortening and insert into the base of the teardrop.
You can stick the whole thing into a Styrofoam cup to harden.
Now that we’ve made the rose bases, let’s move to the petals. Using the large flower cutter, cut out three petals.
Grab one and cover the other two. Using a small spatula, cut a five small slits into each petal. Do this on your thin foam.
Using the ball tool, soften the edges of the petals. Move the petal to the thick foam and use the ball tool to cup the center of the petal.
There are no pics of the next few steps, but shape the first blossom around the base. Brush on clear vanilla to get the fondant to adhere to itself. Move on to the second petal. Once it's shaped, form it around the rosebud.
After your third petal, you have a beautiful bloomed rose!
Get fancy and make some in a second color. I used too much Gum-Text and my flowers dried ashen.
Keep going until you have enough flowers for your cake.
Now. There are no pics of me covering the Styrofoam/cake in fondant. Color the fondant, roll it thin and drape over the cake. Work quickly. Very quickly. Press the sides down first and remove and buckling. Trim the excess and smooth the top with a fondant smoother.
You can use buttercream to stick the flowers to the fondant. I piled mine on the top sans buttercream. (I was going to throw the Styrofoam away and reuse the flowers.) Now, because my colors did not turn out the way I wanted them to and because I was not going to pipe any trim, I used ribbon to finish the cake.
Not too shabby if I do say so myself.
Tools of the trade:
