Big Flower Petal Explosion Wedding

We began our journey with cake when my bride came in with a with a picture of a cake from a magazine. It was a very plain fondant cake with a big flower on it. The bride liked, the design, but she wanted more. More flower, more petals, more bling. And she wanted it in buttercream. Who could blame her?

The bling was easy to accomplish. We used some of the rhinestone rope from Bead and Trim as a border for each tier. It's subtle, but still classy, elegant, and sparkly.

The flower? It was a lot of work, but the look was worth it. I started by using a teardrop cutter and making petals. In four different sizes. I made SO many gumpaste petals! Chad made gumpaste petals! Did I mention there were a lot of petals?!?

But I did get to use a new tool that I just love. I have never really liked my plastic ball tools. They seem to drag and I don't get the petal curling action that I really want. But a few weeks back I ordered Colette Peter's new metal ball tool... and it is amazing! With the metal ball tool I can get my petal edges super thin, and had much nicer curls than what I had previously achieved.

OK, back to those petals! I let them dry on aluminum foil and once they were nice and dry, I used a triangular makeup sponge (not all my cake tools are expensive!) to apply a mixture of silver and purple luster dusts on the petal's edges. These were the colors the couple was using during the reception.

Now with most gumpaste flowers, you make the petals on wires, you bind them all together with floral tape, and then at some point to pop it into the cake. With this flower being on such a grand scale, I couldn't exactly wire all the petals together. So I had to place each petal individually onto the cake. See? I told you it took me a long time!!

Until next time, have a great week!