How to make a gum paste poppy flower

Poppies are such a beautiful flower. They are quite easy to make and look beautiful on top of any cake.  The flower stamens and centre wire are inedible, so you need to remove the flower before cutting the cake.

This is what I used:

Rolling pin
Red and Black gumpaste
CelBoard
Foam pad
ball tool
needlenose pliers
peony cutter
floral tape
20 gauge wire
Red petal dust
paint brush
flower former
petal impression mould (not included in picture)
pre-made wired flower centre (not shown in picture)

Step 1:

Work the red gumpaste in your hands to warm it up.  Roll the gumpaste into a log.  Using the celboard, place the gumpaste log parallel to the base of the board, as shown in the picture.  Roll out the gumpaste thinly.

The celboard will help create grooves so that you will be able to place a wire into the petal once it is made. After rolling the gumpaste out thinly on the celboard, remove it from the board allowing the gumpaste to face up (the grooves will be shown).  Using any sized peony cutter, make 5 cuts.

Step 2: 

Using the needlenose pliers, cut five pieces (about 5 inches in length).  Place the wire carefully into the groove of the petal.  Using you thumb and index finger pinch the base of the petal (closest to the wire).

This will help to secure the petal to the wire. Once the petal is attached securely to the wire, place the petal (with wire in it) into an impression mold.  This will help give the petal some lines and make it look more realistic.

Step 3: 

After you have given the petal some impressions, place the petal onto your foam pad.  Using a ball tool, smooth the edges of the petal, having the ball tool half on the gumpaste petal and half on the foam pad is the best way to thin your edges.

Step 4: 

You will need to do the above 3 steps, five times as you will need five petals.  Once you have made all five petals, place them in a flower former to dry.

Step 5: 

Once your petals have dried, preferably overnight, the flower is ready to assemble. Using your pre-made wired flower center (please see “How to make a Wire Flower Center” tutorial on how to make the flower center) you will need to unwrap some floral tape and activate the tape by pulling it.

Take your dried petal and bend the petal at the point where the petal base meets the wire into a 90 degree angle (shown in picture below).  Do this part for all five petals.

Now take your wired center and your bent petal and activated floral tape and begin wrapping the tape around them.  Once they are secure, continue to add one petal at a time until all five petals are attached to the flower center.

Step 6: 

Once all the five petals are attached to the flower wired center with the floral tape securely, continue to wrap the remaining wire going all the way down the wire.

Step 7: 

Once the flower is assembled, use the red petal dust and paint brush to cover up any white wire that may be showing at the base of the flower from up top and beneath the flower.

Make sure to flip the flower over and apply and petal dust to the bottom side if there is any white wire showing.

Happy Caking!

Diane