How to Make Gumpaste Poppies

Keen to learn how to make gumpaste poppies for cake decoration? This page will teach you how to make the flowers with step by step instructions and pictures.

1. The main things needed to make gumpaste poppies are:

• Round cutters in 2 sizes, the small cutter for inner petals and the larger cutter for outer petals)

• Floral wire

• Black thread

• Gumpaste

2. To make the flower centre, roll the black thread around 2 of your fingers about 40 to 50 times.





3. Remove it from your fingers and twist a floral wire in the centre, leaving a small tip of the floral wire pointing upwards as shown.





4. Cut both sides of the loop.





5. Twist the small end of the earlier floral tip to form a small loop. This loop is to secure the flower centre later.





6. Adjust the cut thread to be evenly distributed, as shown.





7. Take a small piece of white gumpaste. Roll it into a ball. Using a pair of tweezers, pinch small lines as shown. Brush a little edible glue or egg white on the looped end of the earlier floral wire and attach the flower centre to it. Leave it aside to dry completely.





8. Once dried, dust it with green petal dust.





9. For the flower petals, you will need 5 floral wires. Bend one end of each of the wires to form a small loop.





10. Take a small piece of gumpaste and shape it into an oblong piece. Dip the looped-end of one floral wire into some edible glue or egg white and insert it into the oblong shaped gumpaste, as shown.





11. Place the gumpaste onto your rolling mat and roll it thin (not too thin at this stage as you will have to roll it again later).





12. Place a round cutter on the rolled gumpaste such that the floral wire ends somewhere in the centre of the circle. Cut out a circle.





13. Remove excess gumpaste off the rolling mat.





14. This is how your gumpaste should look like.





15. Next, roll the gumpaste sideways as shown. Take caution not to roll the centre (where the wire is) too thin or else the wire will cut out through the gumpaste.





16. Thin the sides fo the poppy petals to obtain slight frills at the sides.





17. Next, using a veining tool, imprint veins onto the poppy petal.





18. Leave the petal to dry completely in a flower former. Repeat the process until you have approximately 2 small petals and 3 large petals to make one poppy flower.





19. To assemble the flower, use floral tape to secure the 2 small petals to the flower centre. Next, tape on the large petals and adjust the petals accordingly.








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