Roses in sugar paste

Hello sweet tooths!

Let's go! Today, we're switching things up! Time for a little sugar paste… or rather, flower paste.

I'm going to show you how to make beautiful little roses that look almost real!

Tips:

The first thing you need to know is that there are different types of sugar paste depending on what you want to make.

There is: sugar paste, modelling paste, and flower paste.

Sugar paste: it is used to cover your cakes or to make small flat decorations. It is a very elastic paste that is perfect for covering a cake.

Modelling paste: is used to make bows, figures, animals or other modellings taller than 3-4 cm.

Flower paste or gum paste: is used for flowers. You can roll it out thinner than a sheet of paper and it dries very quickly! Perfect for making sugar flowers. And that's the key difference!

So we will be working with flower paste. I chose Renshaw, which I love very much.

Here is what you'll need:

- A pack of flower paste

- Rolling pin

- Magic powder for rolling out

- Duster

- Rose cutter of your choice

- Edible glue

- Foam mat

- Ball tool

- Brush

- Glitter

Let's get started!

To begin, knead a little flower paste. You should know that sugar/flower/modelling paste is very crumbly and brittle at first, and becomes more and more elastic as you knead and fold it. Don't knead it for too long though… it might become sticky.

We are going to make the rose bud. To do this, take a very small amount of flower paste and roll it into a nice ball in your hand. Then roll it, slightly tapering one side of the ball, to get a nice teardrop shape.

The teardrop should be the size from one corner to another as shown in the first photo. If the bud is too large, it will show on your rose and that won't look great…

We'll use a skewer, a toothpick or a piece of spaghetti with a little edible glue. I like using this bottle because the brush is built in.

Put a little glue on your skewer, then gently push it into your rose bud with a twisting motion. This will prevent your bud from deforming.

If you want to save time, there are also ready-made plastic rose buds available.

Then let the bud dry. Ideally overnight, but at least 1h.

Once your bud has dried, we can move on to the next step.

We will now take a little flower paste and roll it out very, very, very thinly!

You'll notice that if you roll the flower paste directly on a mat, it may stick a little.

So I use a duster that I fill with magic powder. It's great because it distributes a thin layer evenly.

Attention! I only dust the bottom side. If you dust the top, it may dry out too quickly.

Roll the flower paste out as thinly as possible! You should almost be able to see through it! This is very important, because if you don't roll it thinly enough, you won't be able to give it texture later on.

Now cut out 3 to 5 flowers from your flower paste.

I used a cutter about 4 to 5 cm. I cut out 3 flowers because I wanted a pretty little rose. If you want a large rose, use a much bigger cutter and you can cut out 5 roses without any problem.

Once my 3 flowers are cut out, I place them on a flat surface and cover them with cling film so they don't dry out too quickly.

Here are two essential tools! The foam mat set which will allow you to give texture to your roses without tearing them, and the ball tool which will let you create texture on the edges of your petals.

I start by dusting a little magic powder under and on top of my flower so nothing sticks.

Then I take my ball tool and place half the ball on my flower and the other half on the foam mat.

This way, you'll see the paste start to wave and your flower will take on texture. It's very important to straddle both the mat and the flower. If you're only on the flower, it will thin out in the middle but not at the edge.

There we go! Our first cut-out is ready for the next step. Take your previously dried bud, apply a little edible glue on your petal and follow the steps below.

Take the light pink mat, which has a hole in the middle, and pierce your cut-out right in the centre with your skewer. This way, you'll have something to hold your bud and prevent everything from tearing.

Now, imagine your flower as a person with a head, two arms and two legs.

We'll start by wrapping our bud with the head (the petal at the very top). We wrap our bud in it.

Once the bud is nicely wrapped, take one leg and wrap it around the first petal, without sticking it down completely. Always leave a little space so the rose can build up volume.

Then add one arm (the one opposite) and finish with the two remaining petals.

So to recap: start with the head, then one leg, then the opposite arm, and finally the two remaining ones.

There you go! You have a beautiful rose bud! WELL DONE! When you make an arrangement, you can make big roses and buds.

For the second cut-out, we proceed the same way as at the beginning. So we thin out all the edges of our petal on the purple foam mat.

Then we add volume to our petals using the thick light pink foam mat. Press into the rounded part as shown in the second photo. This will give it more volume and you'll have a more open rose.

Now attach it to our rose bud. Apply a little glue as with the first cut-out. Make sure to stagger the petals so your rose looks even and harmonious.

Close each petal, following the same process as for the rose bud.

All that's left is to do the same with the third cut-out.

The only difference is that you don't need to use as much glue. We want more open petals than the previous two cut-outs.

What a beautiful rose! :o)

You can glam it up with a little bling-bling glitter! It will give it beautiful shimmer. Use a brush for this.

I love this light pink for white roses. The rose will stay white, but with beautiful pinkish and especially glittery highlights.

It's not mandatory, but it gives a lovely pearlescent effect, especially if you make several.

The roses can be made ahead of time and stored in a box away from moisture, light and dust for at least six months.

I hope this tutorial is clear for you. If you have any questions, don't hesitate to ask. I'll be happy to reply to your comments.

Have a great day!

Karin

P.S.: All the materials used can be found at the bottom of the recipe.