Behold! The Flowers of Insanity!

Just kidding. I’m actually pretty proud of this, my first ever gum paste flower work. We had to do a floral spray with certain components (one rose, one two-petal rose bud, one one-petal rose bud, etc.) over about a six hour period.

I started, like everyone else, with a small white log of gum paste that looked kinda like a pillar candle, minus the wick. From there, I rolled, cut, shaped, colored, painted and wired... here’s a process shot that shows various pieces drying either inverted to protect the petal shape or lying on cardboard (the ribbon loops and ends) to keep a rounded shape.

Here’s an overview, close to completion, that shows the whole spray except for the lily. I liked the way my rose and stephanotis (the five petal little white ones) came out the best. Chef seemed to like it overall, though she rightly dinged me on too much yellow in the calla lily center and dreadful hydrangea (the blue ones). Hydrangea were supposed to be the easiest but for me they were the biggest pains. I kept ripping them apart by accident. So if I ever make a cake for you, don’t ask for hydrangea, ok?

And finally, here’s a close up of my rose, which I made white before hearing we had to apply paint to the roses in some way. I wanted to keep it as white as possible, but required components are required components, so after Chef said every flower has a little yellow in it, I decided to hit just the petal edges with some yellow color. I liked it better pure white, but even sullied with the yellow, I’m happy with how it turned out... now I get to make a dozen more for the team project cake tomorrow!