9:oopm: kids are in bed asleep and I've assembled all my flower-making tools: decorating tool kit, wet towels, dry towels, spatulas, fondant rolling pin and board, cornstarch duster, flower ejector and camera!
i was taught to take a small bit of the fondant and knead in the food colouring. this controls the shade of colour you create in the end
9:15: it took about 10 minutes to knead 8 ounces of white fondant with pink gel paste food colouring into a complete mass of pink.
then, you take the small pink chunk you've kneaded and add it to the remaining larger chunk of white fondant and knead these two together. is it past my bedtime? or does this picture look obscene to you too?
it may take a while for you to get from the marbleized colour to thoroughly mixed if you have a huge chunk of fondant that you're colouring. this one's not ready yet.
at last, the food colouring has been thoroughly kneaded into the fondant
9:30 pm: OMG! this is tedious and my back's killing me. I decide to sit down at the kitchen table to make the flowers. I begin to gain a rhythm and start cutting the flowers a batch at a time, resting them on the foam block. I then use the dowel to shape the flowers all at once and then place them to dry on my parchment-lined sheet pan.
here are the little cut out flowers awaiting shaping on the foam
using the little dowel, you just gently press the tip into the centre of the fondant flower, creating some dimension
look at all the cutouts i made and i'm not even half done yet!
i lined up the little pink flowers to dry on parchment. i decided to make rows of 20 because it would make it easier to keep track of how many i had made. i need to make 285 flowers plus extras for breakage!
i'll be adding royal icing centres to these little fondant flowers the next day
ahh. finished at last. in the end, i made 330 of these little suckers
10:45 pm: done for now! off to bed!
19 comments:
Those flower decorations look really good!
Wow! You are so brave.
Looks cute! Good luck with your project.
Just looking at all the tips - I'm convinced - I'm coming to your house to play. After hearing about the sore back - my FOF (fear of fondant) is hightened.
You did a spectacular job of the tutorial and the outcome was really fabulous. When life slows down I'm taking that Wilton Fondant Course.
You are one brave mama!! Well done on your planning ahead. I love that Wiltons set!! Wish I had one of those.....working with fondant can be very painful - on the back, neck, hands....need I go on?? I am sure Bebe is going to be one extremely happy birthday girl!! Cant wait for the next instalment! Fairly new to your blog and really enjoying it. Thanks, Colleen
I can't wait to see the outcome! I once made 500 little flowers with stamens and I wanted to shoot myself when it came to 2am!
My daughters birthday is coming up and we are doing a flower theme. This will work great for the cake decorations and will take less time. Along with some silk flowers around the bottom of the tray this will look awesome. If any one has an ideal for a disco ball that is edible please let me know or post a comment so I can read about it.
Those are very pretty... but 330 of them, would certainly have tested my patience! Wow :)
Believe me, I know what you are talking about:
http://schnuppschnuess.typepad.com/manzfred/2008/07/teil-6-dreistck.html
I'm looking forward to part 3,4,5... - it's a nailbiting story!
I got the link to your blog from a friend, who had a déja-vu, when she read about your castle-project.
The flowers are so beautiful and the fotos are great - can't wait to read more!!! Jutta
Hi my fellow Vancouverite! I can't believe you made so many pretty flowers, that's dedication. I see all of these wonderful fondant creations like this and I've got to ask, what the heck is and where in our city do you get all of your cool baking stuff? My baking is pretty much limited to cupcakes, muffins and cookies but I'd love to expand my knowledge. Thanks!
Jutta,
thanks for visiting! oh my...your cake looks absolutely amazing! too bad I can't read German! I noticed you used wooden dowels. I've recently read that you can use plastic drinking straws and have wondered how that would go...
Madeline,
I began like you, making muffins, cupcakes and cookies. After I took the Wilton decorating course, everything changed! I took mine at the Cookshop in City Square in Vancouver, but I think Michaels offers them too. It was fun and I learned a lot! I buy my stuff (using coupons) from Michaels, and I frequent the Cookshop and Ming Wo (only the one in Chinatown has tons of baking stuff). There are other places too like Gourmet Warehouse...
Thanks for the tip. I had no idea that Michaels carried these things. That's fantastic!
hi, i just came across your post :) the flowers are lovely. btw, why does your fondant look so dry? mine's more wet hence it cant be shaped well. could it be becasue of the weather..or?
Hi Vicki,
Well, you realize of course that I purchased my fondant ready-made from Michaels (coupons of course!) and all I did was roll and cut it. So, if you made your own fondant that could be an issue. If you didn't weigh your ingredients and used the scooping method that might be another reason for the wetness. Another problem might be the humidity in your area. However, that being said, I live in Vancouver, which is a rainforest, technically. If you live in Asia or the tropics, the might have played a rold in your problem. If you used a recipe, did you try the Wilton one? Check out the site. I used it an had no problems; no wetness.
hi cakebrain! i just found your blog and i'm so happy i did, and so weird because just last night i went through the same fondant kneading/dying/cutting out flowers process you did... ! i really love all the recipes and am looking forward to exploring your blog. looks wonderful!
teehee! it looks like a clam! :P
Hi, does anybody know where i can buy a paste food coloring? I have a gel one, but i am not sure if it's the same..
thanks
michelle
Michelle,
Gel paste is what you have I think. If you purchase from Wilton's (I get mine from Michaels with my discount coupons), then you will have the same one I used. The terms are interchangeable I think.
where can I buy the forget me not flower cutter?
I got mine at Michaels Craft store...and used a 40% off coupon too. It's a Wilton Product, which you can purchase online too.
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