Smell the pretty flower.

As I walked around my neighborhood...

I started to take notice of all the beautiful trees and flowers and suddenly a thought went through my head. 

Oh yea!... It's time to add flowers to my cakes. 

I thought a Peony would be a nice flower to start with.

So here we go...

  These are the tools I used to make the Peony:

Top Center: Gum Paste
Left to Right: Rolling pin, shaping foam, ball tool, brush, gum paste glue, floral wire, Styrofoam ball.
Bottom Center: Peony cutters

I wasn't totally prepared to make the Peony. I needed petal dust and forming cups.  This flower will just have do without. 

The first thing I had to do was to roll out the gum paste as thin as paper.  I started with smallest cutter first.  It takes about 6 or more petals from each cutter to create the flower.  Once I cut the petals, I thinned them out with the ball tool and shaping foam. 

I then attached the petals to the Styrofoam ball.  I used the floral wire to hang the Styrofoam ball from a cooling rack to allow the petals to dry as I placed more on. Its important to allow the Peony to completely dry before handling it. 

Today's Lesson: Forming cups and flower formers are necessary to make gumpaste flowers.

 In this case, the forming cup would have come in handy.  Oh well...  I was able to use a small bowl to allow my Peony to dry.

The finished Peony...