Pink Gumpaste Peony

My first attempt at making a peony after my class at PC almost 4 months ago. Goes to show how much you can forget in the 4 months when you don't practice! I'd better get onto practising my roses soon before I really forget.

I made the flower paste from scratch - it's really not that hard or time consuming to make. The only thing I did find is that I was ripping the edges off my petals so I may have to add something else to my flower paste to give it a bit more elasticity. This will be my little research project for the next little while. There are lots of recipes out there for making flower paste (or gumpaste) so I will be on a mission to find the 'perfect' texture for me.

The usual flower paste I use would cost me about $40 for a 1kg bucket (cheap compared to the Wilton gumpaste) and I love using it but at $40 a bucket I think I should start experimenting.

Do you see any veins in the petals? I don't!!! I should really invest in a good veiner - I couldn't get any texture out of the one I have and it was pretty frustrating when I tried to create texture by using the veining tool and ended up ripping my petals! 

Now, I just have to wait until the weekend before I can bring home my 'sick' Kitchen Aid from the repair shop and bake a cake to go with the peony. My next dilemma would obviously be what cake to make - I've been thinking white chocolate with passionfruit filling and white chocolate buttercream but we'll see what takes my fancy when I have the time to bake.

Enjoy!

Jojo & Leroy's Wedding

Jojo & Leroy

Some of the cupcakes

I wrote a few sentences to this post and forgot about it until someone reminded me that I have not yet posted pictures up of what I had made for Jojo & Leroy's wedding!

The wedding was on 5th May and it has taken me this long to remember and finish the post! How slack of me.

I baked over 300 of these mini red velvet cupcakes for the church reception - I still can't believe I actually baked over 300 of these mini morsels. I was lucky my mum & sister came over to help me assemble the cupcakes and put them into boxes for delivery. The flowers were done a few nights before after a late decision to make the flowers all one design and just have 2 colours. As usual, I had other grand plans of making roses to go with the cupcakes but I had only made 30 or so by the Tuesday so I knew there was no way I would be able to make it all in time unless I took a whole week off work and just made roses all day. This only highlights that I need to work on my time management skills - hehehe. I'm sure my husband couldn't agree more with this admission!

Enjoy!!