Sugar Roses

Sugar flowers are fairly easy to make after a little practice and a lot of patience. They are the perfect decoration for birthday and wedding cakes especially as the flowers can be shaded to match the colour of the bridesmaids dresses. Please note that sugar flowers are intended for decoration only, and should not be eaten.

You may click on any image in this guide to enlarge it.

You will need:

Flower Paste (Pink) – This is available ready made or you can make it yourself. Which one to use becomes a matter of personal taste. I prefer to use Squires Kitchen Flower Paste. This comes in a variety of colours, which is useful for dark flowers, or you can use white and colour it yourself.
Flower Wires – These come in different thickenses and can be white or green. The thicker wires (No. 24 guage) are required for heavy flowers such as roses and the thiner ones for little ‘fill in flowers’.
Wire Cutters
Food Colouring/Petal Dust (Red and Green)
Green Floral Tape (for covering wires)
Rose Flower and Leaf Cutters
Calyx Cutter
Ball Tool
Small Rolling Pin
Block of Oasis
Sheet of Tin Foil
Cornflower

First take the block of oasis and cover it with tin foil. This makes the perfect holder for your flowers to dry in.

Cut lengths of wire (approx 8cm) with the wire cutters and bend the ends over to make a hook. Make lots of these and push them into the oasis.

Open the flower paste and colour with a little coloured red paste to create a delicate pink. Then using small pieces at a time to prevent drying out, break off tiny pieces and roll into a ball. Take a wire hook and dip into a little water then push into the ball. Roll between thumb and finger to form an oval bud shape. Put back into oasis to dry.

Roll out a small piece of flower paste very thinly and cut out a rose petal using the smallest petal cutter. Place it in the palm of your hand and using the ball tool, rub over the edges to make it thiner and also shape it.

Brush a little water on the petal and wrap it around a dried bud. Leave to dry.

Using the second smallest cutter, cut out two petals and shape. Brush a little water on the base of the petal and wrap around the dried first petal, gently bending the top edge of the petal out. Repeat with the second petal.

Repeat with the next size petal and making three petals. Continue until you have the desired size rose. Dry the roses between each petal size or they will become too heavy and ‘droop’.

Make a variety of sizes from buds right up to full blown roses.

Make a calyx by cutting out of green flower paste and using the ball tool to shape. Brush with a little water and push over the wire and up to the rose flower and gently press into place.

Repeat with all the roses.

Take the floral tape and starting at the top of the wire just below the calyx, wrap it around the wire, stretching it at you do so.

Repeat with all the roses.

Take a little red petal dust and lightly dust the edges of the pink roses.

Make leaves by rolling out green flower paste and either using a plunger cutter or a plain cutter and veining tool cut out petals.

Using a cocktail stick make a ridge on the back of the leaf and insert a wire.

Make the veining of the leaves and dry in the oasis.

Wrap floral tape around the wires.

Using a little petal dust in green and red mixed together. Lightly dust over the leaves, especially the edges.

Boil a kettle or saucepan of water and carefully spin each flower and leaf quickly in the steam to set the petal dust and create a very realistic look.

Leave to dry completely.

Using a thick wire No. 28 guage and floral tape, join the leaves together in groups of three.

Do the same with a few of the rose buds and small flowers to create small sprays.

Starting with a rose bud, a spray of leaves, a No. 28 guage wire and floral tape start to build up the large spray, inserting the leaves and small sprays as you go until you have the size spray you require.