Gum Paste Snapdragons

I like to make flowers that feature in bridal flowers and arrangements and one of the more recent additions are  Antirrhinums, otherwise known as Snapdragons.  I searched through many books to try and find any instructions as they have quite a complex composition.  I even asked Squires Kitchen Shop to go through their books to see if they could find any listings.  Thank you to the girls in the shop, as they struck gold and found one book with them in by Alan Dunn, one of my cake heroes!

So here are my sugar Snapdragons, hope you like them!

Debra x  

Sweetpeas

I have always loved delicate Sweetpeas but can never take them into my home as each year they seem to fill up in the little pod in the centre of the flower with tiny black flies that not only spoil the look of the flowers but also invade my house once they get inside. So, my answer this year was to make sugar ones and here they are.

The Daniella Cake

After years of being involved in many different crafts including paper crafts, silk painting, glass painting, watercolour, oils and many more, I found myself delving into the world of Cake Decorating.  My Daughter was getting married and had seen the cake of her dreams on Peggy Porschen's website.  A mountain of pristine white icing with a cascade of sugar flowers tumbling down the side.  It was the most beautiful cake I had ever seen, but way out of my price range, so I decided there was only one thing for it; I would make the cake.  I could bake, how hard could it be!

Twelve months later after many hours of studying books and watching tutorials I finalised my design and started making the sugar flowers.  As soon as I made my first rose I knew that I had at last found my perfect art form. I could bring together my love of flowers with my love of art and create lifelike flowers that will last a lifetime.  

Thankfully my Daniella cake turned out perfectly and was loved by my Daughter, whom I think had secretly been rather worried that I couldn't pull it off!

When people started asking me how to make sugar flowers it occurred to me that my life would have been far less stressful if there had been somewhere I could have gone to learn this wonderful skill.  Books are expensive and unless you already have a certain amount of knowledge in the subject, many are impossible to follow.  I looked for classes but found they were all in the South of England or abroad so I didn't have any choice but to struggle on with my books and You Tube videos.  I look at the flowers I made for the cake now and realise how much better they could have been but they were good enough.  Anyway, getting back to how one makes sugar flowers, I am going to be running several classes both for small groups of 4 people and one to one tuition on request.  I will be posting details of the classes throughout the month so watch this space.

I hope you will enjoy my posts which will be flower and cake related, with tips and advice on everything from the equipment you really need to where you can get it for a good price.