Cake

Equipment Required:- Wafer paper (cut into 1cm wide strips)- Craft knife- Piping gel- Brushes- Gold highlighter dust- Lemon extract- 18 and 24 gauge white wire- White floral tape- Gum paste- Cool boiled waterStep 1.Cut the wafer paper into 1cm strips using a craftknife and ruler. For the larger flower, you willneed to cut lengths of 5 x 14cm, 10 x 12cm, 10 x10cm and 10 x 8cm, to make five petals in total.Step 2.For the centre, take a ball of gum paste 3cm insize, attach to the end of a hooked 18 gaugewhite wire and flatten the top. Leave to dryovernight.Step 3.Roll some gum paste approximately 1mmthick and cut it into strips with a width ofapproximately 6mm and 4cm lengths. Bend eachstrip to form a loop and attach to the dried gumpaste centre. Make slightly smaller loops for theouter edges of the centre to finish it off. Leaveto dry overnight. Mix gold highlighter dust withlemon extract to form a paint and colour.Step 4.To make the petals, lay the wafer paper stripswith the rough side facing up and begingenerously applying piping gel with a brush,ensuring each strip is fully saturated.Step 5.Carefully bend each strip and attach the endstogether to form a loop.Step 6.Take a hooked 24 gauge white wire and dip itinto some water, then dry off the excess. Takethe largest wafer paper loop, as well as one ofthe second largest loops, and sandwich the wirebetween them. Use a small amount of waterif needed. Next, take the other second largestloop and stick it to the other side of the largeloop. Continue sticking on the rest of the loopsin descending order, finishing with the smallesttwo loops at either end of the petal. Use a smallamount of water at the base and press togetherfirmly. Be careful not to overly saturate thewafer paper. Leave to dry for 10-15 minutes.Step 7.Take a long strip of wafer paper and apply pipinggel to the rough side. Take your dried petal andattach one end of the strip to the base of thepetal. Carefully wrap the strip around the loops,following the shape of the petal, and stick tothe base of petal. Cut off any remaining waferpaper with a craft knife. Leave to dry beforeassembling.Step 8.Bend the wire of each petal slightly at the baseand using some white floral tape, attach eachpetal to the finished centre.1 23 45 67 8Petal Variations:To create a unique shaped flower, cut the waferpaper strips in different lengths. Create the loopsas before and apply them on the 24 gauge wirerandomly to create different heights. Take a longstrip of wafer paper and stick it to the base ofthe petal following the shape of the loops tofinish. For this flower, I made only four petalsbut feel free to add more or even smaller innerpetals and experiment.``````Alternatively, you can create a smaller flower asbefore by shortening the lengths of the waferpaper strips.``````Centre Variations:(a) To create a brooch centre, take the flattenedcentre and using gum paste, make smallteardrop shapes. Stick them all over the topof the centre including the sides. Leave todry overnight before painting with the goldhighlighter.``````(b) For the spiralled centre, create a 2cm ballfrom gum paste on the end of a hooked 18gauge white wire and leave to dry overnight.Roll some gum paste out to approximately 1mmthick. Using some water, begin spiralling the gumpaste around the ball. Leave to dry overnightbefore painting with the gold highlighter.Alternatively, you could also use moulds such asbrooches or buttons to create your centre.ab