Wafer Paper Flowers for Fall

Jeannie Gearin does it again with another amazing blog post.  This time it is a great idea for a beautiful fall cake!

Wafer paper flowers offer an alternative to gumpaste flowers. They have a light and airy quality to them which makes for a beautiful cake design.

I learned a new technique from Lisa Berczel at the ICES Convention this summer, molding wafer paper flowers. The tools needed are pictured here. Plastic tweezers or silicone tipped tweezers are necessary for handling the wet wafer paper. Make a pattern for the petal shape that will fit into the mold, taking into account there will be some shrinking of the shape once it gets wet. Cut wafer paper petals using the pattern. Dip the petal into water by holding it with the tweezers. Lay the petal onto the mold and brush gently into place with a damp brush. 

 Leaves are made the same way. Brush the wafer paper onto the veiner to achieve the impression you want.

 Craft punches can also be used to make flowers out of wafer paper.  These punches were purchased at Michael's and Archiver's.

 Flowers can be shaped by laying on a former and brushing lightly with water to take on a curved shape. The single layer flower is fragile and does not need to be dipped in water.

Plastic formers of any type may be used, but make sure they do not have a hole at the bottom or the wafer paper will also get a hole.

 

The fastest way to dry the wafer paper is under a heat lamp. I found my sugar box worked great for this. Leaves and single layer flowers dry in about 15 minutes. Multi-petal flowers take at least 30 minutes to dry. It is easy to see when they are no longer wet and ready for the next step.

Make centers for the flowers with gumpaste or a 50/50 mix. I mixed yellow and green together to get a more natural looking center.

 Airbrushing is the best way to color the flowers. Hold the flowers with tweezers so they don't blow away! Add the color in layers and take care not to add to much because the moisture can distort the flower shape.

Attach the centers to the flowers using piping gel. Allow to dry and then attach to the cake with more piping gel, holding in place to set.

  

Play around with the layout of your design before attaching to the cake.

Wafer paper flowers are fun to make. I am looking forward to experimenting with this technique for butterflies and feathers.

Vendor Credits:  Party Styling and Desserts by Jeannie GearinThepastrytip.com

Jeannie's Facebook Page

DTC Products Used:

Multi Center Mold

Hollyhock Blossom

Gardenia Leaf

Conversation Hearts

Just in time for Valentine's Day you can make some lovely hearts for your sweetie!

I'm going to show the steps for the two toned hearts.  I take two similar size blobs of  sugarpaste (I used fondant - you can do candy clay, gumpaste, etc).

Then I twist them together.  Looks like a colorful slug to me.

And roll into a smooth ball.

Place the smooth ball in the cavity.  Yeah, this one changed back to all pink for the photo - very odd.

Then I use my rolling pin to smooth out and push the sugarpaste into the cavity.

Once finished I pop them in the freezer for just a couple minutes so I don't squish them when I pop them out.

And all finished!

Product Used:
Valentine - Conversaion Hearts

Get Out of the Dog House!

This cake is sure to let you out of the dog house!

It is a pretty simple cake -- but the spiked dog collar bottom border puts it over the top.

Roll out a length of fondant to the size for the mold.

Lay the fondant on top of mold cavity and press in.  To get the fondant into the spikes you will need to really push it in.

Use a rolling pin to smooth down the back of the mold.  Take a small knife and trim off the excess.

Pop in the freezer to harden -- this is necessary to get the spikes out intact.  Have a bowl of ice cream while you wait!

Turn the mold upside down and gently roll up.  As you come to each spike, gently stretch the mold to pop it out.  I accidentally ripped one off - while it was still frozen I put it in place with a touch of gum glue and it stayed affixed just fine.

Get some supplies out to dust the spikes!  I mixed a little of Albert Uster's gold dust with vodka.

Paint the spikes.

Products Used:
Spiked Dog Collar
Doggie Assortment
Paw Print Texture Mat

Ambulance Paramedic Bag using DTC Zipper Mould

Jo Marshall-Orr lends her talents to the DTC blog show off the zipper mold and her amazing talents.

I made this bag using the DTC Zipper mould - I found it a fantastic way to get definition and it looked so real I was asked many a time if I had used real zips.

This mould is really easy to use with this simple tutorial

Equipment: DTC Zipper Mould, rolling pin, stitching tool, Fondant knife, white fat & 50/50mix of Fondant/Gumpaste

Very lightly grease mould with white fat
Roll 50/50 Fondant/Gumpaste  into a log same approximate length of mould

Squish 50/50 mix into mould

roll over with rolling pin to smooth & get good definition

Scrape off excess using a fondant knife

Place in freezer for 5-10 minutes this helps alot in de-moulding anything from silicone

De-Mould I start at the thicker end

Flip the Mould over & place zipper onto backside this makes it easy to remove after

Using the stitching tool add a deeper impression along the zip

Doesn't this look so real! I love this mould.

As shown in the photos I then used a little rectangle of the same colour of the cake & using the stitching tool made a piece to fit over the ends of the zip for a sewn in look.

Hope you enjoy this mould as much as I do

Jo from Ciccio Cakes

http://www.facebook.com/CiccioCakes

To get the effect of the 2 zippers joining just fold under the end bits and use the stitching between them 

Product Used:
Zipper - Closed

Also Available:
Zipper - Open

Puppy Paw Print Tutorial

Here's a quick tutorial for Decorate The Cake's cute paw print mold.  I used black fondant and mixed in some tylose powder.  Tylose powder makes the fondant dry faster and harder.  I rarely use gumpaste anymore, and instead use fondant with tylose for modeling or making flowers.  Start with a small ball of the fondant/tylose and then press it into the mold.  It may take a few tries, but soon you'll figure out the right amount of fondant needed to fit perfectly in the pad or the toes.

If the fondant is not wanting to stay in the mold or is sticking to your fingers, dust on a little corn starch.

Press the fondant into the mold and continue with the rest of the paw prints.

Let the paw prints dry for an hour or so in the mold.  If you are in a hurry, you could put the mold in the freezer for 10 minutes.  When I was ready to flip them out, I put a cake circle on top, flipped it over and then carefully peeled back the mold.  Most of the prints came out easily, but I did have to  help a few of them out with a small paint brush.  I use a paint brush as opposed to a toothpick or fingernail (yikes!) so I won't leave a mark in the fondant prints.  

Make more prints, if needed.  The bottom tier of my cake was a 12" round and I used about 20 paw prints to go around the cake.  When you're ready to put them on your cake, first put a small dot of buttercream on the back.

Then using a toothpick or paintbrush, pick up the print by the buttercream dot and carefully place it on the cake.  

I loved having this mold for this cake.  I wanted all of the prints to be basically identical.  I'm afraid if I would have tried to model them by hand, they wouldn't have been so uniform in shape and size.  And it would have taken me FOREVER to make each one by hand because I'm such a perfectionist - I seriously could spend 20 minutes making one print!!!  The other thing I like about the mold is the raised or rounded dimension it gives the print.  Something I couldn't achieve with a Cricut or cutting a stencil by hand with an X-acto knife.  

This mold is very versatile.  You could use melted chocolate in a squeeze bottle or even isomalt.   It could also be used as a texture mat.  Above all - just HAVE FUN playing with your cake!

Guest post by Charla Tatom

www.celebratewithcake.net

Products Used:

Paw Prints Texture Mat - Large

Similar Item: 

Paw Prints Texture Mat