I have learned how to handle various fondants and their properties but most importantly I am adding to my limited knowledge of making flowers and figures for my cakes.
So far I have made Flowerpaste Roses, Christmas Figures, Lilly's and Poinsettia and lots and lots of leaves !!!
For this terms project we are making a Christmas Cake with many elements to it, one of which is a Poinsettia and having googled to see if I can see a video or instructions on how to make this Christmas flower I realised that there isn't anything on the web remotely helpful.
So here is my (hopefully) helpful way to make a Poinsettia Topper for a cake
Equipment List :
Flower Paste
Christmas Red/Foliage Green/Egg Yellow Food Colouring Gels
22 Gauge white Wire
Small Rolling Pin
Ball Tool
Paint Brush
Edible Glue (You can make your own from Icing sugar and water)
Craft Knife
Trex
Poinsettia Cutters
Leaf Cutters (any will do I used Rose Leaf cutters)
Leaf/Flower Veiners
Edible Dusting Powders in Red and Green
White Florist Tape Stem Tape)
Cling Film
Scissors
Sponge
A Poinsettia is made from 2 different sized petals 3 small inner and 3 larger outer. Which size you choose is up to you.
Take your Cutter and Veiner and Red Flower Paste, using a small amount of Trex to stop the paste sticking and drying out, make a small sausage from your flower paste.
Cut a 22 Gauge Wire into Quarters, take one piece and placing some glue on the end insert it into the 'sausage'. Carefully roll out the paste from the sides of the wire and from the top of the wire. Roll until the paste is very fine just keeping some bulk around the wire for support.
Take the Petal Cutter and cut out a petal and gently vein. Placing the petal carefully on your sponge frill and thin the edges using your ball tool and leave to dry with some movement in the petal.
Repeat this procedure for each petal so you should have 3 small and 3 large.
Do the same for 3 leaves.
Leave all petals and leaves to dry in a dry place, over a radiator works at drying them if you need them quickly. Handle them very carefully as flowerpaste is very delicate and quite brittle when it's dried.
Next you need 6 stamens (centre of the flower)
Cut 2x 22 gauge wire into 6 pieces and taking the yellow flowerpaste roll a small ball and attahc to the wire with glue. work the ball down the wire gently so that it is well attached and creates a small cotton bud like shape- repeat 6 times and leave to dry.
Once all your parts are dry dust them with the appropriate colour dusting powder to create a depth of colour and realism that the flowerpaste alone cannot achieve, my tips for the rose leaves is to dust the edges with a burgundy colour to add a little something.
Use a soft but big brush for this but be careful as a little dust goes a long way, I find a make up brush works for me I found some in Primark in the summer that do the job perfectly.
Next comes assembling your Poinsettia.
Cutting your Stem Tape into 1/2 width fasten the 6 stamens together with one in the centre and the other 5 going around it.
Then attach the smaller petals in a triangle around the stamens, attach each petal one at a time making sure each is secure before you add the next, once your smaller petals are aligned and in place attach the larger petals on the outside in the gaps between the small petals. Then attach each leaf for a beautiful single Poinsettia Cake topper.
This will be going on a cake once it is covered so I shall show you a picture of it in place shortly.
Please feel free to ask any questions and show me your end result if you give it a go.
