Wired sugar flowers are really tricky to make and I've only done it once before, so when the tutor of my cake decorating class said we were going to make them I was really pleased. I was also a little surprised as the class is aimed at all levels and has several complete beginners but I thought it was good that we were going to do something that would stretch abilities and teach me something useful.
However, the flower we ended up making wasn't what I call wired at all - it had a wire as a stem but the petals were not individually wired. After the tutor had demonstrated, I asked her if we were going to make wired flowers as well - and she said this was a wired flower. Obviously we have different understandings of the term!
Even so this is a very pretty flower and you can make it a lot faster than a fully wired flower and you don't need much specialist equipment - we used a template rather than a cutter. There are a few things you need however, which you can buy from Amazon or any good cake decorating shop:
Culpitt 18 Gauge Dark Green Florist Wires - Sugar Flowers
8pc Sugarcraft Cake Modelling Tool Set
PME sugarcraft Foam pad
Renshaw Flower and Modelling Paste 250 g
You can make your flower any colour; I used Sugarflair Spectral Concentrated Paste Colour - Christmas Red
And if you want to make leaves:
Sugarflair Sugarpaste Colour Paste Holly Green
3Pcs Veined Rose Leaf Fondant Cake Cutter Plunger--White
Moss Green Stem Tape 90 feet x 13mm. Stem - Tex. For Corsages, Bouquets, Flowers, Arrangements and Crafts.
Optional: Wilton Gum Paste Flowers Drying Rack
That does look quite a long list but it's nothing compared to what you need to make proper wired flowers!
To begin colour about 70g of sugarpaste in your chosen colour. Make a ball and roll in your palms to form a cone. Bend the end of the wire into a little hook and insert into the cone; this is your central bud.
Roll out some more of the flower paste so it is very thin. You can use a large flower cutter (rather than individual petals) or draw a shape yourself and use it as a template; we used a card template our tutor had made and then laminated. Cut out around it.
Place the petals on a foam pad and rub around the edges with a balling tool, with the tool half on the flower and half on the pad. This will make the edge of the flower curl up.
Stick the wire through the centre of the petals and bring it up so it sits underneath the bud. Taking one petal, wrap it very tightly around the bud, then take a petal from the opposite side and do the same thing, overlapping it. Repeat and start to bend the tops of the petals out slightly until they are all wrapped around.
Repeat the previous steps with another piece of flowerpaste and another set of petals.
And finally repeat with a third layer, bending the final petals out more.
The flowerpaste will start to harden quite quickly; be careful where you place the rose so it doesn't sit on one side. Ideally hang it from a drying rack or stick the wire through a hole in a colander -have a look around the house and see what you can find!
To make the leaves, colour a small piece of flowerpaste green and use the plunger cutter. These need to be fairly thick so you can get a wire through the middle. Cut a shorter piece of wire and carefully insert it into the centre of the leaf and bend the leaf backwards. Bind the wire to the main one holding the flower up using florist tape; repeat if you want to have two leaves.
This would be very pretty on top of a cake and it doesn't take too long if you need to make a few.
