Poppies…Poppies.  Poppies will put them to sleep.

As a part of my cake accessories (#cakecessories) for the “Somewhere O’er the Rainbow” cake, I decided to dedicate another whole post just to the creation of the gumpaste poppies that will adorn the cake.

Poppies are a relatively easy gumpaste flower to make and require only 6 wired petal, some stamen and a seed pod to create the overall look.  Let’s get started

The Tools & Ingredients

Here is a list of all the tools and ingredients that you will need to create a gumpaste poppy flower. 

• Tools
  • CelPad
  • CelBoard
  • Heart shaped cutters (3″ & 2″)
  • Circle cutter (4″ & 3/4″)
  • Small Daisy cutter
  • Large Ball tool
  • Gumpaste Storage Board
  • All purpose petal veiner
  • Corn starch for dusting
  • 9″ fondant rolling pin
  • Green floral wire (22 gauge) & floral tape – cut one 5″ wire length for each poppy
  • White floral white (26 gauge) – cut six 4″ wire lengths for each poppy.
  • Black thread
  • Needle nose pliers
  • Wire cutters
  • Scissors
  • Fruit tray or flower formers
• Ingredients
  • Red gumpaste
  • White gumpaste
  • Petal dust (Cocoa Brown, Poppy Red, Flambe Red, Birds of Paradise Orange, Moss Green, Lime Green, and Stone Green )
  • Black (or brown) food color marker
  • Gum glue

Step-by-Step

Step 1:  Making the seed pod.  

Start with a 3/4″ ball of white gumpaste.  Using a little bit of gum glue, put the ball of gumpaste through the green wire at the hooked end.  Next roll out some more White gumpaste (about 1/16″ thick) and using the smallest Daisy cutter, cut out a daisy shape.  Use the small circle cutter now and cut the petals away from the center of the daisy.  You are trying to keep the indentations from where the center extends to the petals but not keep the petals (this will make more sense later).  Attach the remaining daisy center to the seed pod with a little gum glue.   Hang upside down on a drying rack at least 24 hours.     

Now that the seed pod is dry, it is time to colorize it and create some dimension.  

Use your black food color, create dots at the indentation marks from the center and then draw lines to the center of the pod.  

 

 

 

 

 

Next dust your seed pod with lime green petal dust at the base and under side of the pod.  For the top dust your mix of greens (lime, stone and moss with a little bit of the cocoa brown).  

 

 

Step 2:  Making the stamen

This is by far my favorite part of the process particularly because it is cheaper than buying stamens and then needing to color them and still gives the same full effect.  
Start by taking some black thread.  Yes you heard me right, just some regular ole’ sewing thread.  Wrap it around three/four fingers about 100-150 times….if you lose count…meh who cares just get a good bit on it.  

Now take your floral wire and bend it in half over your wrapped thread.  Insert your colorize seed pod.  

 

 

 

 

 

 

Bend your thread bunch up and use green floral tape to secure.  You want to make sure your tape goes up the thread bunch a little so that you can get them to stand up.  

 

 

 

 

Then just snip the top (where they are still looped) and fluff.  Voila…cheap stamen.

Step 3:  Making the Petals

You will be making 3 large petals and 3 small petals for each poppy.  

Start by rolling out the red gumpaste on your Celboard.  Using the heart shaped cutters, cut out 6 petals (3 small and 3 large) centering the cut with the channel for the wire.  Take the large 4″ circle and cut away top of the heart section.  

Apply a small about of gum glue to the white wire and insert into the channel made by the CelBoard.  You should insert the wire about 1/3 of the way into the petal.  I make all my petals first and then keep them under the gumpaste storage board to prevent them from drying out before I go on to the veining and forming steps.  

Lightly dust your all purpose petal veiner and then press the petal into the veiner.  

 

 

Next place your petal on the CelPad and using a large ball tool, thin the edges of each petal.  After you have thin each petal, place it on your fruit tray or flower former to dry.  

 

Your petals should dry for no less than 24 hours before you attempt to dust them with color.  

 

 

 

 

Since I started with red gumpaste, I only need to use a light amount of petal dust to give some depth of color into the veins of the petals.  I use a mix of Petal Crafts Poppy Red, Flambe Red, Birds of Paradise Orange, Cocoa Brown (very little).   

 

 

I like to gradually start blending all the colors together to form a totally unique color.  Very rarely do I find that I want specifically the color that is in the container.

 

 

 

 

Now you could just completely skip the step where you colorize your petals but I find that if you do this then you add some depth into the veins of the petals and just a bit of shimmer to your petals (especially with the Flambe Red luster dust)

 

 

 

 

Step 4:  Assembly

After all the petals and centers have dried, it is time to start assembly.  To begin, take the center and start with the smaller petals.  Attached the wired petals to the center pod & stamen with floral tape.  I like to wrap each petal around 3-4 times before I start attaching the next.  Continue until all 6 petals are attached.    

 

 

You should have 3 small petals and then the 3 larger petals will be just behind those as the smaller petals come together.   It is a little hard to describe so hope this picture helps.  

 

 

 

Step 5:  Adorning the Cake

Wired gumpaste flowers should never be stuck directly into the cake without being food safe.  I recommend using simple drinking straws cut down to the length to stick into the cake and then place your wired stems into the straw.  This ensures the cake is protected and you are practicing good food safety.