Cakes For Romantic Occasions (13 page)

This pretty single-tiered cake is decorated with lovely open sugar roses, small violet blossoms and daisies – perfect for an intimate summer garden wedding. The colours of the flowers and the ribbon around the base of the cake can be changed to match the colour scheme of the wedding.

SERVES
About 30

MATERIALS

• One 18cm (7in) round white iced cake, set onto a round cake board the same size as the cake • 1.5cm (½in) ivory ribbon

• White flowerpaste, 175g (6oz) • White sugarpaste, 50g (2oz)

• White royal icing (see page 26) • Food colouring: pink, grape violetand spruce green • Snowflake lustre dust

• Spaghetti

EQUIPMENT

• No.1.5 icing nozzle

• Piping bag

• Rose petal cutters, one large, one small • Medium daisy cutter

• Small primrose cutter

• Rose leaf cutter

• Small heart plunger cutter

• Flower foam pad

• Stay-fresh plastic mat

• Bone tool

• Rose leaf veiner

• Painter’s palette

• Small paintbrush

• Rolling pin

• Dusting brush

• Double-sided tape

one
For this cake you will need approximately ten roses. You will need the make the roses a few days in advance as they need to be left to dry – preferably overnight – at each stage. Mix around 50g (2oz) of white flowerpaste with the same quantity of white sugarpaste. Add enough pink food colouring to the icing to make a soft rose colour.

two
With a little ball of the pink icing, make a cone shape that is just a little shorter than your small rose petal cutter. Dip a short length of spaghetti into some water and insert it into the bottom of the cone. Allow to dry overnight (
a
).

three
For the next stage of the sugar rose, roll out the pink icing about 1mm (¹⁄16in) thick. Cut out the small petal shapes and place them under a stay-fresh plastic mat. When you are ready to use them, curl them three at a time with a bone tool on the flower foam pad.

four
Brush the cone with a little water and wrap the first petal around it tightly so that the tip is completely covered. Take another two petals and repeat this process, curling the edges out with your fingertips (
b
). Apply a further three petals, curling out the edges. Leave to dry overnight.

five
When the roses are completely dry, you can continue to add more large petals. Add five petals at a time and allow to dry. Each rose requires approximately 15 petals. While you are waiting for the roses to dry, you can get on with making the other sugar flowers and leaves.

six
Roll out 50g (2oz) of white flowerpaste to about 1mm (¹⁄16in) thick. With a medium daisy cutter, cut out 14 flowers. On a flower foam pad, curl the petals towards you using a bone tool. Put a dab of water in the centre of one flower then stick another flower on top, ensuring the petals are not overlapping (
c
). Place the seven completed flowers into a painter’s palette to dry overnight.

seven
Take 25g (1oz) of white flowerpaste and add a small amount of grape violet food colouring. Roll out the icing about 1mm (¹⁄16in) thick and cut out around 15 small flowers with the primrose cutter. Again, shape the petals on the flower foam pad using the small end of your bone tool. Leave these to dry for at least two hours (
d
).

eight
To make the leaves, mix a little spruce green food colouring with 25g (1oz) of white flowerpaste. Roll out the icing about 1mm (¹⁄16in) thick and cut out the leaf shapes with a rose leaf cutter. You will need around ten leaves.

nine
Press each leaf into the rose leaf veiner and then curl the very edges of the leaves on the flower foam pad with the small end of the bone tool (
e
). Allow to dry for a few hours.

ten
Roll a golf-ball sized ball of sugarpaste (leftover from covering the cake), flatten it a little and place it on the top of the cake. Fill a piping bag with the no.1.5 nozzle and some white royal icing and use this to secure the roses and daisies around the ball (
f
).

eleven
When the roses and daisies are in place, attach the violet flowers and leaves to fill any gaps in the arrangement and dust the flowers with snowflake lustre dust.

twelve
Fix the ivory ribbon around the base of the cake with a little royal icing. Attach a ribbon bow to the base of the cake with some double-sided tape.

thirteen
Roll out 25g (1oz) of white flowerpaste about 1mm (¹⁄16in) thick, and cut out little hearts using the heart plunger cutter. Stick these around the top of the ribbon using a little water. Use the same piping bag and nozzle as in step ten to pipe tiny pearls in between the hearts (
g
). Dab down any icing peaks with a little water.

fourteen
Using the same piping bag, pipe small pearls into the centres of the daisies and small blossom flowers and trailing down onto the top of the cake. Dab down any icing peaks with a little water.