How to Add Petals to Rose Bud | Sugar Flowers

Watch more How to Make Simple Sugar Paste Flowers videos:

Learn how to add petals to a sugar paste flower rose bud from cake designer Amy Noelle in this Howcast cake decorating tutorial, part 4 of a 6-part series.


After I've created my rosebud, I can turn it into a full flower by adding
layers of five petals each. I have two different size cutters. We're going
to start with a small five petal cutter to begin with. I've rolled out my
gum paste using a pasta machine and then cut out the shape. In order to
create petals that are super thin, I do two things. The first is to pinch
and roll the edges. The technique that I use is as if I'm snapping. I take
my first finger and my thumb, and I pinch all the way around.

After I've gone around the whole entire flower, I use a ball tool. When I'm
using the ball tool, I'm working just on the edge, and I like to work with
my ball tool half on the edge and half off to make sure that I get nice and
thin. Now I don't want to put too much ruffling into this petal. I just
want to think about thinning the edges. So I'll just trace right around and
then work across the petal just to thin it out and to make it a little bit
wider. So I work all the way around and then roll straight across to thin
it out.

After I've gone all the way around for all five petals, I'm ready to attach
it to my bud. When I attach it to my bud, I pierce the wire through the
center of my petal and slide all the way up to my bud. With a little paint
brush I add a teeny, tiny little bit of glue. Beginner sugar flower makers
tend to use too much glue, so just use a little bit of glue and just around
the base of the bud. We don't want to add glue at the top because later
we're going to paint these rosebuds.

Now I'm ready to put these on one at a time. I start one of my petals at
one of the places where there's an overlap from the previous layer. And I'm
going to attach the center right there. I want to make sure that the petal
is attached higher or, at least, as high as the previous layer. I don't
want to attach it so that it's lower.

I pull each petal up overlapping as I go, so my third petal goes on top of
my second one, the fourth goes on top of the third. But I do want to make
sure that that fifth petal, in order to continue the pattern, the fifth
petal needs to get tucked underneath the first one. So as I adhere these,
it goes all the way around. Each one is on top on one side of the petal and
underneath on the other side of the petal. I push the gum paste into the
base of my bud just to make sure that it's completely adhered. If I need
to, I can go back and add a tiny bit more glue. This is the first layer of
petals for my rosebud, turning it into a full flower.

I'm going to add a second layer as well. I've already ball tooled this
piece to make the edges nice and thin. In the same way I'm going to pierce
the wire all the way through and add a little bit of glue. Now when I work
on this layer, I want to make sure again that I line the center of one of
my petals up with a piece where there's an overlap so that each of the
petals kind of peeks through the window between two petals from the
previous layer.

I pull them up so that the petals are, at least, as tall if not a tiny bit
taller than the previous layer, working all the way around. In the same
way, once I get to that fifth petal, I'm going to attach it on top of my
fourth one and then underneath my first one. Now I want to push it in and
pinch just to make sure that everything is adhered so that the glue is
sticking. It doesn't matter so much at this point whether there is a lot of
frilliness, or if you see something at the very base of the petal that
isn't too pretty. That's okay. We're going to cover that up with the next
layer. At this point though, I want to take my flower and allow it to dry
overnight before I add the last two layers of petals.