Cake

13a 13b12a 12b11a 11b14a 14b13c 13dFor the lavender:Steps 11a & b.Colour your gum paste with Violet and set aside. Cutyour desired amount of stems with 24 gauge greenwire. Hook the tips with your needle nose pliers asshown with the hydrangea centres. Dip your wireinto the gum paste glue and insert it into the ball.Gently form the ball to the wire, twist and pull downto remove the excess. Leave to dry until completelyadhered to the wire. Cut out the small five tippedflowers with the cutter. Coat the back of the lavenderbud, push your wire through the flower and gently cuparound the bud. Hang to dry until firm.Steps 12a & b.Cut 10-15 flowers at a time and work on various stemswhile others hang and dry. When stacking your flowerson the stem, there is no particular pattern. It is best touse groups of 2-4 flowers, with stem spacing between.Make sure to add the gum glue between each flowerand gently pinch the bottom of the flower to adhereto the stem. Each stem can have anywhere from 12-16flowers. Hang to dry overnight.Steps 13a-d.Once completely hardened, take the Violet petal dustand randomly apply colour between petals. Also addsome Pale Blue petal dust to add highlighted elements.Lastly, take the Irish Moss petal dust and shade thebottoms of each flower bunch to give the illusion ofthe calyx.For the cosmos:Steps 14a-c.Take one bunch of stamens and divide it in half. Usinga 24 gauge green wire, hook around the middle of thebunch and twist the wire with needle nose pliers. Bendthe bunch up and tape around the base using floraltape. Using black food colouring or petal dust, colourthe stamens and set aside to dry. Take yellow sprinklesand crush until they resemble pollen. Brush piping gelon top of the stamens and dip in the dust.Steps 15a & b.Roll out the white gum paste over the groove board andcut out nine cosmos petals. Dip white 24 gauge wiresinto gum glue then insert into the channels on the backof each petal. Rub over the channel with the ball tool tosmooth out the surface and secure the wire.14c 15a