Yesterday and today I have continued with my sugarcraft preparations as I needed to finish off my roses and bring a bit more life to my hand moulded roses and butterflies.
The next stage of the roses was to use a larger cutter to cut out seven more petals to build up the layers around the central bud. The petals had to be left for a little while so they dried slightly but were still malleable when added to the rose. I used this dimpled foam tray to give them a little shape whilst they were drying and the shape gives the petals a chance to curl.
Once the next layer was added, the rose has to dry upside down. This is the bit I hate as I'm always terrified all my delicate petals are going to crack and break, but the stiffener kneaded into the sugar paste at the beginning really comes into its own here and keeps the flower strong. Gravity also helps the petals to stick to the bud before you start adding more layers.
Whilst the roses were drying, I started to add the coloured lustre to the small hand moulded roses. I use a small amount of 'Very berry' to add a light pink shimmer to the centre of the rose, then went over all of the petals in a light metallic to add shimmer and dimension.
The addition of a little colour really brings the flowers to life and gives them just a hint of sparkle.
Once the roses had had been drying for half an hour, I cut out anther nine large petals and left these to dry slightly. These are the biggest petals I have used so far, and the first attempt did not go very well as they all flopped off as I tried to add them to the rose! On the second attempt and by overlapping the petals more underneath each other as I went around I was really pleased with my rose!
At this stage the rose needs to rest for another half an hour upside down so gravity can do its work again.
Once half an hour is up, I poked a hole in the bottom of a cupcake case and sat the rose into it. This allows the rose to open up again very slightly without the petals falling off. At this point I left the rose to dry completely overnight.
The next step was to decorate my plain white butterflies. I thought they looked a little dull just with a white and shimmer lustre, so I added a little lilac details to their wings with some food colouring.
They looked a little vibrant once painted as the scheme is more towards a lilac than a purple, however I left them to dry overnight and decided to look at them again in the morning.
When I began to add the pearlised lustre to the butterflies, it muted the cover to a lovely shimmery lilac which I was really pleased with. The shimmer isn't so noticeable as it is on the roses, but when you catch it in the right light it is very pretty.
The final step was to add a little shimmer to my large roses. They did look very pretty as they were, however with the addition of the lustre it brought them to life and made them look lovely and dewy. I now have a lovely rose for the top cake plus a spare in case anything should happen. I also made some extra rose petals to add around the rose once it is positioned on the top of the cake to fill any gaps.
The next step, bake all of the cakes, eek!
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