Black & Red Flowered Wedding Cake

by Tammy Bowen
(Glendale, AZ)

Black & Red Flower Cake

I made this cake for a friend’s 7th anniversary.

5 to 7 days in advance, use gum paste to make flowers (I used a Daffodil Petal cutter and ruffled the edges with a gum paste stick tool). Let the flowers dry completely.
(Note: Make 5 to 7 extra flowers to allow for breakage)

Mix red petal dust with a few drops of vodka. Paint the flowers red, and then set them aside to dry. Once the flowers are dry, paint the edges with black colored paste gel.

Mix black paste gel with small amount of royal icing. Pipe a dime size circle in the center of each flower, and then add 3 to 5 stamens. After the royal icing dries, you can paint the stamens black with silver tips.

Use jewelry glue to attach black and red beads to various lengths of 24 gage wire.

Make 2 – 10 x 2 circle and 2 – 6 x 2 pedal cakes.

Frost cakes and cover with black fondant.

For the top tier, I used a Styrofoam ball with a flower spike in the center. First cover the ball with frosting, then with fondant.
(Note: Covering a Styrofoam ball with fondant is a bit tricky, so it’s best to practice by first covering the ball with plastic wrap and then with fondant. Don’t use frosting while you’re practicing, this way you can easily remove the fondant and try again, and again, until you get the hang of it)

Put 4 support dowels towards the back of the bottom tier. Cover the dowels with a 4 inch cake separator plate. Place the pedal cake on top of the separator plate.

Use black royal icing to secure the Styrofoam ball on top of the pedal cake.
(Note: I gently pressed down on the ball so it would make a small dip in the fondant for the ball to rest in – about ¼ of an inch)

Use black royal icing to pipe a bead design around the bottom of both tiers and at the base of the Styrofoam ball.

Using red royal icing, pipe a scroll design on the bottom tier.

Cut flames pieces out of gum paste. Attach them to the sides of the second tier with a little water. Paint the flames with the red pedal dust and vodka mix.

Use black royal icing to secure the flowers to cake.

Pipe a small amount of black royal icing into the flower spike, then insert the beaded wires.
(Note: The dried royal icing will hold the wires in place)