Top a cake with a delicate fondant or gum paste magnolia.
Decorate a cake with big and beautiful edible fondant or gum paste magnolia flowers. The edible blossoms can be used to decorate a wedding cake by winding the blossoms in a spiral pattern up the tiers of the cake and arranged in a bouquet on the top. You can also use the magnolias to decorate plain and ordinary cakes for a springtime celebration, summertime luau or any other festive event. The flowers are relatively easy to make but may require a practice run or two to perfect the techniques, so give yourself plenty of time to make the professional-looking decorations.
Instructions
1. Pick up a 1-inch section of fondant or gum paste and mold it into an egg shape. Jab the end of a butter knife about 1/4-inch into the fondant shape. Make little jabs all the way around the fondant to give the smooth fondant egg a rougher appearance.
2. Cut a piece of medium-gauge floral wire and slide the fondant onto one end of the wire. Set the wired fondant on a piece of wax paper to dry for 24 hours. This is the center of the magnolia.
3. Roll out some more white fondant or gum paste to a thickness of about 1/10 inch. Use a large petal cutter to cut shapes from the fondant. Cut out nine petal shapes.
4. Slide a 4-inch-long piece of thin-gauge wire into each petal. Place the petals onto the foam padding. Press on each petal, from just beside the center wire to the outer edge of the petals, with a fondant ball tool to thin the petals to about 1/16-inch thick. Continue to thin the outer edges of the petals even more to make realistic looking petals.
5. Transfer each petal onto the cupped side of a large spoon. Let the petals dry for at least 12 hours.
6. Hold the wire of the center of the magnolia in one hand. Arrange four of the petals around the center and squeeze the wires under the petals together. Wrap a piece of green floral tape around the wire to join the petals to the growing flower.
7. Arrange the remaining five petals around the magnolia. Squeeze the wires together underneath the petals and wrap the green floral tape all the way down the wires to make a green stem.
Tags: fondant paste, each petal, cake with, center magnolia, floral tape, fondant paste magnolia, green floral