Can anyone tell me how to make sugar flowers for decorating cakes?!
Can anyone tell me how to make sugar flowers for decorating cakes?
Answers:
Two common real flowers that are used in decorating cakes are candied violets and rose petals. To make those you must first find a source of flowers that has not been contaminated with any kind of bug spray, fertilizer or weed suppressor. Pick the flowers when they are still young, very early in the morning. Cut the stems off the violets with small, sharp scissors. Separate the rose petals.
Beat 1 egg white with 1 tablespoon or water until it is frothy. With a small, clean paintbrush that you have never used for anything but food paint one side of the flower or petal, then place it wet side down into a small dish of superfine sugar. Repeat on the other side, then set the flowers aside to dry on waxed paper. Once they have dried you can store them between layers of waxed paper in a tightly closed tin. They will keep for almost a year.
If you are talking about making frosting flowers like the ones that you find on bakery cakes, then you need to learn to decorate cakes. You'll need to learn several techniques before you become skilled enough to make flowers and even then nice flowers take many hours of practice. I became fascinated with this kind of cake decorating as a young girl. At the time decorating tips and bags were almost impossible to find in most of the USA, so my mother ordered mine from Ateco in England.
I still prefer Ateco tubes, but I learned most of my cake decorating skills from a book by the founders of Wilton, "The Homemaker's Pictorial Encyclopedia of Modern Cake Decorating." That book has been out of print for many years, but you can still find one now and then through a used book store. I've never found one to equal it for basic cake decorating techniques.
Wilton's website is http://www.wilton.com/ . There you will find all kinds of cake decorating tools, tips, ideas, recipes and more.
Ateco's website is at http://www.atecousa.com/ They offer information about a more European style of cake decorating as well as access to their very high quality equipment. I still have Ateco decorating tubes that I have had for more than 30 years.
You might also check your local craft store or community college. Many of them offer cake decorating classes for a low cost.