Hi Everyone,
Well we were onto the Ultimate challenge this week. We do a lot of cake decorating but we really haven’t done much work with making gum paste flowers. Watching them being made and making them are not the same thing at all. Last time I had made them I made small roses and I guess I made about 50 of them; all shades of pink. The cake was stunning, but I kind of forgot how much work all those flowers were. Some things in life are like riding a bike, once you learn you never forget. However, that rule definitely did not apply here. The Pastry Chef who taught me also had the experience of working with a florist so he really knew his flowers. The advantage to that is obvious, he could teach me the details to make them look real.
I now know why wedding cakes cost so much money, because those flowers that you see take hours and hours to make. After the petals have been made, and individually wrapped to create that real feel, the flowers have to dry. Next the petals get wrapped together and then get painted. When we started adding color it really made the flowers come alive. The details on each flower and variation of color is what gave them the real feel look. There is still plenty to learn to become a pro but it was fun experience and more important everyone Loved the cake!
Have you learned anything that was easier or harder than you thought?
~Love From Our Kitchen to Yours