I love making Gerbera Daisies! I remember the first time I made them in class. I thought it almost looked too cartoonish to be taken seriously as a floral decoration. Turns out it wasn’t the flower or the technique. It was my complete inexperience at making this flower. Now it is one of my favorites. So much so that Chapter #3 was originally supposed to be another project. I couldn’t wait for this one and skipped ahead.
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| © You Want Me to Cook? Gerbera Daisy Cupcakes |
This
project was fairly simple. It was
focused on making 4 perfect daisies and nothing else. Here’s what we applied from the Course 4 –
Advanced Gum Paste Flowers:
- Tinting Gum Paste
- Making Gerbera Daisies
My
daisies needed to be made a minimum of 48 hours before making and finishing the
cupcakes since they need to be completely dry before using them. So, a couple days prior to making the
cupcakes, I got started.
Ingredients and Equipment:
To
make things a little easier for me, I used Wilton’s Ready-To-Use
Gum Paste and decided to tint it using Wilton’s Rolled
Fondant Neon Colors Multi-Pack.
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| © You Want Me to Cook? Gerbera Daisy Cupcakes - equipment and ingredients |
A
couple of other ingredients that I needed for making my flowers:
- Leaf Green Icing Color
- A couple tablespoons of white vegetable shortening
- Even parts Cornstarch and Confectioners’ Sugar blend for the dusting pouch
- And don’t forget to add a little gum paste to some water to make gum glue adhesive.
Hopefully,
you have taken the first three courses in the Wilton series and have the
course
kits. I purchased the Ultimate
Professional Cake Decorating Set that covers classes 1, 2 and 3. It had everything I needed and more. From these kits you’ll need:
- Dusting Pouch – found in Course #2 and #3 Kits or sold as a pack of 4.
- Thin Pointed Modeling Stick – found in the Course #2 Kit or in the 10-piece Fondant/Gum Paste Tool Set
- Thick Pointed Modeling Stick – found in Course #3 Kit or in the 10-piece Fondant/Gum Paste Tool Set
- Ball Tool – found in Course #2 or #3 Kits or in the 10-piece Fondant/Gum Paste Tool Set
- Veining Tool – found in Course #3 Kit or in the 10-piece Fondant/Gum Paste Tool Set
- Thin Shaping Foam – found in Course #2 and #3 Kits or come in a set with the Thick Shaping Foam
- Decorator Brush – found in Course #1-3 Kits or comes in a set of 3
- Some of the equipment you’ll need comes from Course #4:
- Large and Small Daisy Cutters – also part of the Gum Paste Flower Cutter Set.
- Impression Mat – also sold separately
Finally,
there are a couple of extras you’ll need to get:
- Palette Knife or Tapered Spatula – the Palette Knife comes in Deluxe Gum Paste Tool Set
- 4” Flower Forming Cup
- 9” Rolling Pin with both sets of sizing rings
- Gum Paste Board – Your practice board you got with your class kits functions in the same manner, but I love this thing. Also, it never hurts to have a little more covered storage space for your gum paste and fondant cut-outs.
- Roll and Cut Mat – not only does it have sizing circles and squares on it for easy measuring and cutting, it helps you keep your counter tops clean. I love mine!
- Disposable Cups – an easy solution to storing gum paste and fondant
- Toothpicks – to color fondant
- Dehydrator – this is totally optional, but I picked up my dehydrator really cheap. I dehydrate the flowers overnight and they are usually ready to go the next morning. Great if you’re running short on time.
Now
that I had everything out that I needed, I colored some gum paste purple, pink,
yellow and orange blending the neon rolled fondant into the gum paste. You will need about a half dollar size amount
of each purple, pink and orange, but you will only need about a quarter-size
piece of yellow. I then colored a half
dollar size piece of gum paste green using the leaf green icing color. To keep your gum paste from drying out, run a
light film of shortening around the ball and place them under your disposable cups. If you don’t have the cups, wrap it in
plastic wrap until ready to use.
After
about 6 minutes tinting the gum paste all the colors I needed, it was time to
get started.
Making
the Gerbera Daisy
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| © You Want Me to Cook? Gerbera Daisy Cupcakes - green daisy |
The
basics of making this flower are making 2 large daisy cutouts and 2 small daisy
cutouts and then stacking them on each other, topped off with a center. Of course, that’s a high level overview. The key to this flower is the way you stack
your cutouts. You need them to fill-in
all the blank spaces so that as you look down on the flower, you don’t see any
space beneath it.
Steps:
(1) Using the
pink rings on your fondant roller, roll-out either the purple, pink, orange or
green gum paste.
(2) Cut
out a large daisy using the large daisy cutter.
You might need some elbow-grease for this one. Place the cutter on top of gum paste and using all your weight, press down on the cutter and twist back and forth. You may need to stand up for this.
If you have issues getting the flower to release, use your thick modeling stick on the round end and gently push out the leaves. You can release the center using the ball tool.
If you have rough edges, use your knife to clean them up.
(3) Place
your cut-out under your gum paste board and cut out another daisy the same way.
(4) Place
one of the daisy cut-outs on the thin shaping foam and using the ball tool,
gently run down each petal from the center of the cut-out to the tip of the
petal. The goal is to gently lengthen
the petals.
(5) Using
the wide end of your veining tool, draw a line in from the tip of each petal to
the middle. You want to see an indent,
but not enough to separate the gum paste.
(6) Dust
the flower forming cup lightly with the dusting pouch and place the cut-out in
it.
(7) Lengthen
and indent the other daisy cut-out.
(8) Brush
a little gum paste glue in the center of the cut-out in the forming cup and
then lie the second on top of it.
Position it so that the petals don’t overlap each other but offset them.
(9) Cut
out a small daisy cut-out preparing it like you did the large (you may need to
use the thin modeling stick to release the petals).
I accidentally made mine with TWO small daisy cut-outs and really loved the way they looked, but technically you only need one.
(10) Brush
a little gum paste glue on the center of the top petal and place the small
cut-out on top.
(11) Lightly
dust the Gerbera Center Mold on the impression mat with the dusting pouch. Press a very small amount of yellow gum paste
into the mold. The piece you push in you
don’t want to be larger than the mold itself.
(12) Release
the center from the mold and attach it to the center of the cut-out “pile” with
gum glue adhesive.
Grade given to self: “A”
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| © You Want Me to Cook? Gerbera Daisy Cupcakes - orange daisy |
As
I flip through the pictures of my final cupcakes, I realize I did a really good
job on my daisies. There are very few
rough edges and the layers overlap well.
How proud was I of the finished product?
I gave it to my friends at the salon for them to either eat themselves
or give to their customers.
What would I do differently? I wanted to see how close my flowers come to an actual
gerbera daisy.
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| From FTD... I love this! |
First,
can I say that this bouquet is GORGEOUS!
If I was sent these for a special occasion, I’d be beyond excited.
*cough
** cough *
I hope
my husband is reading this and taking notes.
I
think the main difference I see is that the center is the same color as the
petals with some darker areas here and there.
What I’m going to do next time is make the center the same color and use
some color dust to darken the edges of the smaller cut-outs and the center.
Finishing
the Cupcakes
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| © You Want Me to Cook? Gerbera Daisy Cupcakes - pink daisy |
Now
comes the easy part!
I
made some Spice
Cupcakes and used the frosting that is included with the recipe to ice
them. At first I wasn’t sure if it was
going to work, but the slightly brownish frosting almost looks like dirt
beneath the daisies. It turned out
better than I expected!
The
frosting sets slightly hard, so before a crust was formed, I placed one Gerbera
Daisy on each. They stayed in place
too! If they hadn’t, I would have simply
used to left over royal icing to attach the flower to the cupcake.
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| © You Want Me to Cook? Gerbera Daisy Cupcakes - purple daisy |
The
next project I took on was a fondant covered cake with roses. I gave it to one of my co-workers for her
birthday and she was very excited.
I’ll
try to get it up soon, but until then… happy baking and decorating!
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