Techniques: Sugar Roses

 

This past Sunday I had made about 70 cupcakes for the Cupcake Camp OC.  As a decoration for the Red Velvet I decided to make some roses.

Let me start off by saying that roses... are extremely time consuming and at times, a real pain in the ass to make.  BUT, once you've finished and you look at them all together... it makes you VERY proud.  You know you've done a great job when people keep saying that they can't believe they're made of sugar and just how real they really look.

Unfortunately, all of the process to this as well as making of the cupcake liners was done in a hurry, if at all.  So, I apologize for the messy hands, stuff in the background, or anything else that may be a distraction from this "this is how I do roses" segment.

First, gum paste.  I was in a hurry so I bought Wilton's Gum Paste from Michael's.    The VERY first thing you have to do is make the buds.  Ideally, you'd have all the same color for the bud as well as the petals but I used white.

I took about 3 grams of gum paste and rolled it into a ball.

Then I formed it into a cone using my fingertips.

Then stick one end of a stick (I used wooden picks often used for hamburgers but you can also use a toothpick with ONE end that's not pointy)

 

Now these must dry for at lease 2 FULL DAYS before you start making your rose.

Yes... you HAVE TO.

After the buds completely dried, I colored my gum paste with a lovely shade of yellow.

Then I rolled out small sections at a time cutting out circles roughly 1 1/2" in diameter.  It's important to keep these covered all the time or else it will dry out before you can use it.

Then I started to thin out the circle with a petal making tool on top of a foam (they sell these kits at Michael's or online).

It's important to make the top half of the circle as thin as you can while keeping the bottom half pretty thick.  You want the top edges to be thin like a real rose but the bottom will need some support to hang onto the bud.

MAKE ONE PETAL AT A TIME.

The backside is what will go on the bud.

Dip the bud in some water then put the first petal on.

Curve in one of the sides.

Then bring the other one completely around closing the petal.

For the second petal wrap it around like a coat attaching it with more water.

Then from here on out what you're going to do is to layer the petals within each other.  So take the third petal and lightly attach it with some water but leave the other half of the petal hanging out.  Take a fourth petal and stick it right in the crevice of the third like the photo.

Close in the third petal and continue with the fifth and so on and so forth.

As you go, you might notice the bottom looking something like this:

What I did was I just pinched the bottom of the petals together to close in the gap.  If there is a lot that's showing you can just take some extra gum paste and fill in the gaps.  Had I used yellow gum paste to do the initial bud, this would be less of a problem.

You pretty much keep going until you have about 8-10 petals.  The more you can get on it the better but just be weary of how heavy it's getting.

These will need to dry for at least 2 FULL DAYS.  Otherwise something like this might happen.

This actually happened because the bud didn't adhere to the stick but something very similar can happen if you don't let everything completely dry, ESPECIALLY the initial bud.

Once it has completely dried you can use luster dust and/or pixie dust to decorate.  I used both.  It gives flowers an extra pop, I think.  I brushed on the luster dust then made a sort of a paint using the pixie dust and lemon extract to paint the edges of the rose.  I got the idea from a bouquet my friend got from her husband.  They flower shop glued glitter on the roses and it made them so beautiful!