Cupcakes

Lots of cupcakes this week, still more to do tomorrow! I do really love the blue ones.

I still have dates available for weddings this summer, so if you know anyone who 

still has not sorted out their cake then give them a push in my

direction!

Hydrangea cupcakes

An order for an anniversary celebration.

There were 12 Victoria sponge

filled with strawberry jam, topped with vanilla butter cream. 12 were chocolate filled with hazelnut

cream and topped with vanilla butter cream.

Each were decorated with a single Hydrangea petals in different shades of blue. I also

made the wrappers to compliment the colour scheme.

Very elegant and delicious!!!

A very chocolate birthday cake

I really wanted to slice into this cake, it really was a piece of

chocolate heaven!!

4 layers of rich dark chocolate cake, chocolate orange butter cream

and then covered in chocolate ganache. Decorated with orange sugar Roses.

A very grown up and sinful cake!

How to make a sugar Rose

Here goes! I hope my explanation of each stage is easy to understand, this is the first time I have done this.

I took the photos myself too which proved a little tricky. I know I said it would be a video, however I just have not had the time for editing!

Here are some of the things you will need, a rolling mat and rolling pin (not in picture) a soft modelling mat, some ball tools, 1 large and 1 medium 5 petal blossom cutter, some flower formers, a little water and a brush.

Also you will need a cone of flower paste made the day before, you can either secure it on a very strong wire or a cocktail stick, I have used a cocktail stick for this one as I want to be able to pull it out at the end so I can stick it straight on the cake.

You will need a fist size amount of petal paste, coloured very pale pink, I used dusky pink sugar flair powder.

Before you roll out your paste spread a small amount of vegetable fat on the board, I find this is better than cornflour as it does not dry out the paste.

Then roll out a small amount of paste to about 1mm and cut out 2 medium sized blossoms.

 Move one set of petals to the foam pad and cover the other with plastic to prevent it from drying out, using the ball or bone tool, soften the edges of each petal by using gentle pressure on the outer rim and smoothing around each one, it should make them curl a bit.

Then using a small amount of water brush the top petal and the 3rd petal completely and then only the base of the others.

Push the cocktail stick through the centre and using the top petal cover one half of the cone to form a point.

Use the 3rd petal to cover the other side of the cone and then bring the others up around one by one, ensuring that you overlap them.

Soften the second lot of petals and then again brush the centre with a little water and the base of each petal, this time you need to evenly spread the 5 petals around the bud again taking care to overlap each petal.

It should look like this, you can use your finger to gently open up the petals, so that they fold back slightly.

You then need 7 petals, which I then cut in to individual petals.

Soften the edges of each petal and then leave them in the flower former to dry slightly. I do my roses like this when I want a nice full and open rose, leaving the petals to dry slightly enables them to hold their shape better.

Whilst they are drying cut out 7 petals using the larger cutter and again soften the edges and leave them in a slightly larger flower former.

One at a time brush the base of each medium sized petal and apply to the base of the rose, spread them evenly around, overlapping as you go, at this point you may want to rest your rose upside down, so that these petals dont fall off.

Repeat again with the larger petals.

You could finish your rose at this point, however I wanted to make this one even fuller, so I cut out 10 more large petals and did another layer, however I held my rose upside down whilst sticking them on.

I then also added some thin pieces of sponge in between the last layer to add a bit more space between each petal.

You now need to let the rose dry overnight at least, to do this without the petals falling off, I sometimes use an apple tray (pictured below) however this time I realised that a cupcake wrapper served the purpose very well

So I pushed the cocktail stick through the centre of it and then gently removed the cocktail stick from the rose.

Apple tray

Once your rose is dry you can dust it with colour to give it a more natural look, I used dusky pink first and then finished with some lemon yellow on the tips of the petals.

I think that is it! 

I have to say I just love making roses, there are so many different kinds and they are so romantic.

I will be creating a complete cake to put this and other flowers on, next step will be posted soon!

Comments please!!