How to Attach Orchid Petals | Sugar Flowers

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Learn how to attach orchid sugar paste flower petals from cake designer Amy Noelle in this Howcast cake decorating tutorial, part 5 of a 5-part series.


So I've painted my throat and all five of my petals, and now it's time to
attach them all together to create my sugar Cymbidium orchid. To do so, I
need start with my petal, and I need to bend the wire. So I don't' want to
start at the top to bend it, I might snap off the tip. I'm going to bend it
at the very end and just bend it back just so it's nice and cupped and we
have an open flower. We can decide later whether we want a closed up flower
or a nice open one. In this case, I want a nice open flower.

Now when I put my five petals around for my orchid, I want to envision a
clock in front of me. My throat is going to spill down towards 6:00 and my
first petal will point straight up to 12:00. I attach them with floral
tape. When I'm working with floral tape, I want to make sure to stretch the
floral tape so that it's sticky. I'm going to wrap it around the wires. I
start by having a tab on one side and folding that tab over and squishing
the tape together. I can spin the wires and squish the tape. I'm going to
rotate around two or three times, and then I'm going to add the next petal.
If by chance my petal has shifted around a little bit, I can always make
little adjustments after.

So remember, my throat is pointing down to 6:00, and my first petal is
pointing up to 12:00. I'm going to bend the wire. I'm going to put two more
petals on at 10:00, and then I'll put a second one on at 2:00. This layer
of petals is going to go in front of the 12:00 petal. So I'm placing it
more forward of the 12:00 petal. And then you spin it all the way around.
Once I have those three petals on, I'm ready to add the two bottom petals.

Again, I'm folding back the wire, bending it backwards so you have a nice
open cup. I'm going to put one down at 4:00 and another one at 7:00. And
this way they go all the way around my throat. When I have all of my petals
on, I can wrap all the way around to the base of my wire, kind of wrapping
around like a barber's pole, all the way down to the end.

Now if I look at my flower, some of it may have shifted so I can just very
easily move my petals around. This is the beauty of having all of the
petals individually wired and put them into the space that we want in order
to create a beautiful sugar Cymbidium orchid.