Gum Paste Cherry Blossoms: Creative Molding Trick

I would consider the little four petal flowers that are needed all over the sweet 16 cake we are going to do to be cherry blossoms. I wanted to make some in gumpaste to put on the sides of the cake and to add more depth and texture throughout. 

These were very simple to make and required minimal tools. All I did was make up some gumpaste, pull off a very small piece and roll it in to a pea sized ball.  Next, I used my fingers to smash and shape the pea into a large flat disk.  I tore about 2 cm or so in on four different places to give me petals.  I pushed in and curved the sides of the petals and pressed them against the next petal over.

Then, I mooshed the edges of the petals and pressed them in to slight curls to give it some movement.

To dry them, I tore off 6 inch sections of Reynolds wrap, folded it over and over into a flat but fairly sturdy stick, and then pressed it between my fingers to make a wave the whole way through.  The flowers sat in the dips in the wave to make sure that they had a slight curve.

I think that these will supplement the icing flowers that will be more flat quite well.  Some will be icing and tasty, these will be delicate and dusted with pearl dust.  I hope that it will create something very visually interesting while still keeping the much preferred taste of buttercream instead of being solely gum paste.

Always let stuff like this dry overnight and by all means keep your remaining gumpaste tightly sealed if you do not use it all.  These will be stuck on with buttercream.

Happy crafting!