Sugarlicious Peonies!

I am a gardener and love, love, love creating gumpaste flowers. I learned the basics of this flower's construction from my friend Chef Ruth Drennan, Ruth Drennan Cakes, and I added my own twist. I teach gumpaste flowers and I also sell selected sugar flowers. Isn't that sweet?

Christening Cake

I designed this cake for a friend.  The cake was made using a lace pattern press.  I used "Amazing Putty" to make a mold for the gumpaste cross, and strung gumpaste "beads" onto dental floss for the rosary beads.  My signature roses reign supreme. I think they are a cross between my mentor Scott Clark Woolley's and Alan Dunn's style with a twist.

Flower Box Cake

 
This cake is a work in progress. I look at it and see so many things I would change.  Don't we sugar artist just obsess and fuss over every little detail?  I am the same way.  I just have to work on another piece soon.

Hello Sugar!

 
I've had many orders for my sugar flowers. I enlisted my daughter and we worked assembly-line to get all the sugar flowers out on time.

My sugar peonies were the number one request. Here is a custom colored peony and day lily to match a watch provided by one of my clients.  Pretty close huh?

My Gumpaste Poinsettias & Holly Floral Spray

I wired the poinsettias and holly on Thursday and touched base with my client on Friday for pick-up.    I am still experimenting with boxing up the flowers for shipping.  So far Chef Lori's trick of wrapping each petal with fresh toilet tissue (off a new roll of course) is one of the best tips around. I've had my containers tossed and bumped and even dropped with no breakage.  So I am fine with using Lori's trick when  teaching a technique but wrapping a gumpaste flower order in toilet tissue might be seen by a client as well--not a good thing.

I used recyclable peanut packing  and stuffed thin pieces of foam around the sides and bottom of the box. Needless to say, we both braved Saturday's snowstorm to meetup for delivery.  I, ever the anal person for having to be on time,  tried to hurry and slipped on the snow, but the flowers arrived without any breakage.  It's not readily apparent in this photo but the order requested that the flowers be "sparkly" so I lightly sprayed the flowers with clear spirits and poured on some gold glitter.  This made a very subtle sparkle in the light.  I didn't want the flowers to totally lose their realism.