{Tutorial} Make Your Own Cake Flowers

A few days ago, I started a new board on Pinterest for beautiful flowers that I love.  I came across this gorgeous cake with the most stunning flowers. When I clicked the link to find out more, I learned that the amazing flowers are made from fruit leather.  They were created by Erin at Wild Orchid Baking Company (who also created the fabulous rainbow heart cake I posted about recently).  I knew that I had to share the tutorial with you.  The tutorial is incredibly easy and within minutes, you can create yet oh so stylish flowers to adorn your desserts with.  Using a combination of colored fruit leathers, you can create these stunning cake flowers before you know it!

Perfect for cupcakes too!

Cake: Wild Orchid Baking Company
Photography: Mark Davidson
 Perfect for decorating a cake or cupcakes. You an also use these cuties to dress up a fruit plate or garnish cake slices.


Supplies
Fruit leather (We used store bought for this project. If you wanted to match a specific color, then making your own might work better for you.)
Round cookie cutters
Small bowl of water
Small paint brush
Floral wire (tooth picks or skewers would work as well)
Piece of foam

Step One
Using a round cookie cutter, cut circles out of the fruit leather. The size of the cutter you use will determine how large of a puff you have at the end. For these puffs we used round cutters that were 1/2” to 2” in diameter.

Step Two
Pick up a fruit leather round, and using your thumbs and forefingers, press the sides of the round together towards the center of the circle. You’ll end up with a shape resembling a ruffled “x”. Just be sure to press towards the center of the circle, so that you don’t close the “x” entirely. The open loops are what give the puff it’s shape.
Repeat with other circles. For a nice full puff we used 6 fruit leather rounds per puff. You can use more or less depending on how full you’d like the puff to be. To begin to form a puff, press 2 of the ruffled fruit leather rounds together at their points.

Step Three
If the fruit leather has begun to dry out, brush on a small amount of water so that they stick together. Add more ruffles until you achieve the desired puff shape. Set formed puff onto a piece of styrofoam. Use floral wires or tooth picks to prop up the fruit leather puff into it’s desired shape. Allow to dry out over night. Using the wires or toothpicks helps keep the puff from drooping or loosing it’s shape as it dries.  You may need to allow puffs to dry out longer depending on the humidity.

Make The Small Circles
Add dots to your cake or cupcake design by cutting out small circles from the leftover fruit leather. Apply using royal icing or water, just like the puffs.
Apply to a finished cake using small dots of royal icing, or if applying to fondant just brush on a small amount of water where you’d like the puff to stick.

For cupcakes: Set onto freshly piped frosting.

Need an invitation for Pinterest?  Email me at stefanie@annaandblue.com and I'll send you an invite.