Gumpaste Frilled Oriental Open Peony Flower |Free Template | Sugar Flowers | Part 1
Just say the word ‘Peony’ and the imagination conjures up a beautiful, delicate and romantic flower.
Peonies are one of the most popular flowers used on wedding cakes and cake decorators love them. They are bold, but perfectly gorgeous and due to their full layers and ruffles, they make floral arrangements stand out or work as a statement flower on their own.
This is my first time making one! I know! I seriously, can’t believe it has taken me this long to even attempt to make a frilled oriental open Peony!
I’ve admired this flower and others that have made Peonies in Gumpaste and other edible or non-edible mediums for years! So you will be learning along with me.
I’ve included a FREE TEMPLATE with the tutorial, so you won’t get left out if you do not have any Peony cutters. I’ve added 2 different types of Peony petals and as a bonus I have also included the Peony leaves and calyx!
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Equipment Required
The full list of equipment required is outlined below the photo.
Tools
28-gauge white florist wire (for the petals)
24 gauge florist wire (for the pistils)
18-gauge florist wire – For the stem
Ball tool (plastic or metal is fine)
Rolling pin (6” or 9” length)
Paint brushes – For edible glue and dusting petal dusts.
Small digital scales (optional)
A glass cup
Foil
Zip lock bags/cling wrap/air tight container - Gumpaste dries quickly, so it will need to be stored away while you work.
Something to insert your flower into as you work, such as a cake dummy, polystyrene or florist foam blocks (Oasis).
Edible Ingredients
*Gumpaste - My gumpaste recipe is easy to make and great especially if you live in a hot climate.
Light Pink Gumpaste
Light Green gumpaste
Petal dust - Colours according to the colour of the flower you do.
Edible Colour paste/gel colours - If you colour your gumpaste.
Corn flour/Corn starch – To prevent gumpaste from sticking.
How To Make This Stunning Flower
Making The Peony Centre
This flower is full, and has a number of different components, but the best place to get started is with the centre.
The section right at the centre of Peonies is called the Pistils, the majority of Peonies normally have between 3-6 pistils. You can choose, how many you would like to make. I choose to do 4 on this occasion.
Take 4 pieces of 24 gauge florist wire, use pliers to make a small hook in each piece.
Colour up some gumpaste light green. I weighed my gumpaste out on my small digital scales. Each piece needs to be 0.30g. If you don’t have small scales don’t worry. You just need a pea size amount of gumpaste about 0.7 - 0.8mm in size.
Roll the gumpaste into a ball, then into a teardrop shape. Brush the hook end with some edible glue. Push the hook into the rounded end of the teardrop shape and secure it to the wire by twirling the gumpaste at the base in between your fingers.
Use your index finger and thumb to pinch a slight ridge down one side. Also bend the tip slightly towards the ridge.
Once you have made all 4 pistils, bring them together with the ridges and tips facing outwards. Use some half width light green florist tape to tape them together.
6. Prepare some small double ended stamen, by putting them together in small batches, tape the centre, then cut them half.
7. If you are using white stamen like me, you will need to dust them yellow. I mixed together Sugarflair’s edible dust in Primrose & Egg Yellow, to get the right shade of yellow.
8. Evenly brush the edible dust onto the stamen, ensure that you knock off any excess dust.
9. Dust the pistils, I used Sugarflair’s edible dust in Moss Green, Spring Green with a touch of Crystal Color’s Tree Bark to lightly intensify the green colour. Start dusting from the base and so the green is deeper in colour and graduates to a lighter green at the top.
10. Brush the tips of the pistils, with a burgundy shade. I made up this colour using Crystal Colour’s Cherry For Katie & Tree Bark. Lightly brush this colour onto the tips only.
11. Have your stamen ready to be taped on. Use half width light green florist tape. The stamen should be aligned just slightly lower than the pistils. Tape each stamen batch on one-by-one. Wherever you see a gap add a bunch of stamen. I used 6 bunches to complete my centre. Use your fingers to spread them out so they look more natural and not so unformed.
Cutting & Wiring The Petals
I wanted my flower to be really full, so I cut and wired 12 petals in each size (small, medium & large), 36 petals in total. It was a bit time consuming, but it was so worth it in the end, when I had my finished full billowy flower.
I coloured my gumpaste pale pink using Sugarflair’s Skintone. You can colour your gumpaste in whatever colour you choose to do your flower in.
Tip: Keep a sheet of acetate beside you as you cut out the petals (especially if you are cutting a larger number of petals at once). You can place them under the acetate as you cut them out and they will not dry out as you work on each petal.
Begin by cutting the small petals. Have some 28 gauge white floristry wire ready (you can cut 1 florist wire into thirds).
Lightly condition the gumpaste by adding a small amount of vegetable shortening to your fingers. Using a groove board (CelBoard), roll out the gumpaste over the groove(s). The gumpaste needs to rolled out thinly, so the petal will look as natural as possible.
Take the small cutter and place it over the groove line to cut out the petal. The groove line should be about half way or just under half way of the petal.
Brush some edible glue onto the 28 gauge (remember to wipe off any excess glue on the back of your hand). With the petal in between your index finger and thumb, gently guide the wire into the groove and carefully secure the petal to the wire by lightly pinching the base.
Vein your petal in the peony silicone veiner. Be careful as you take your petal out of the veiner that you do not stretch your petal.
Place the petal onto a petal pad, use a small ball tool to soften the edge of the petal. Make sure the ball tool is half on the petal and half on the pad.
Create a slight frill in the petal, by rubbing the ball tool back and forth over the petal edge.
Take the wide end of a Dresden tool, run this around the edge of the petal, this will further frill the petal edge.
On the inner petals (small petals), also take the wide end of the Dresden tool down the centre, this helps the curl the edges inwards. Be careful not to over rub as you run the Dresden tool over the petal, this may cause the wire to come out.
10. Use a small silicone spherical mould 3.5cm in diameter (the ones used to make hot chocolate bombs are great). Bend the petal slightly at the base and place the petal into a sphere, so it dries with a lovely curved and cupped shape.
11. Do this process for all the small petals.
12. Follow steps 1-8 to make the medium and large size petals.
13. To dry the medium petals use a large size spherical mould 6.5cm in diameter. If you are making the same number of petals (12), you will be able to get 2 petals into each mould cavity.
14. If you do not have enough silicone moulds (or any mould to allow the petals to dry), use some foil to mould a cupped shape for your petals to dry in.
15. Make sure to bend each petal slightly at the base, before placing it into the mould.
16. Depending on where you are in the world, what gumpaste you are using, or how quick your gumpaste dries. Make sure to allow the petals to dry thoroughly before dusting with edible petal dust.
Dusting The Petals
You may choose to leave this step if you do not want to add any further colour to your petal. However, dusting the petals, brings the petals to life and enhances some of the vein lines in the petal.
I used Sugarflair’s Blush Pink & Crystal Color’s Tree Bark & Cherry For Katie, to mix a deep pink, which I then toned down with some corn flour.
The brush is important, make sure you use a soft, fluffy brush, so it will prevent you from breaking your petals as you dust them. I find make-up brushes great for dusting gumpaste petals and leaves!
Have your edible petal dust ready. Dust the inside base of each petal. If you are doing the same as me, only bring the petal dust to about half way up the petal and allow the colour to taper off. So you are left with a graduated colour on the petal.
Dust all of the petals as outlined in step 1.
Steam the Petals
Again you can choose to skip this step, but I find it takes away the powdery look some times left by dusting the petals.
There are steamers on the market specifically for cake decorating. However, I have found that a clothing steamer, looks the same and works absolutely fine. If you do not have a clothing steamer you can boil some water in a saucepan and hold the petal (or leaves) over the steam, which I did for my Gumpaste Magnolia Tutorial, see the YouTube tutorial for details. Be careful not to burn yourself!
Stem all of the petals. Make sure you do not saturate the petals with the steam, so they are overly wet. Steaming the petals is only to secure the petal dust to the surface of the gumpaste.
Place the petals upright into a cake dummy or floristry oasis, so they can dry. Do not touch the petals until they are completely dry.
Assembling Peony
Nearly done! My favourite part is assembling the flowers!
Tip: Place the petals onto a sponge, as you bring them together so they do not get damaged.
Prepare all the petals by bending the wire to a 90 degree angle. Also have some half width florist tape ready.
With the small petals, bring them into pairs (they will look a bit like angel wings). Tape them together with the florist tape. If you have 12 petals you will have 6 pairs of small petals.
Take 1 pair of petals make sure the base of the petals, sits where the tape ends on the centre. Use half width florist tape to tape on your first petal.
Tape the first petals on so they overlap each other and create a lovely pretty shape in the centre.
Prepare the mid size petals as per step 1. Tape these petals on individually and wherever there are gaps in the first row, also overlap the petals.
Prepare the large size petals as per steps 1 & 5.
7. As each row of petals is taped on, the flower will start to get quite heavy. It is okay to tape the petals on whilst holding the flower upside down, this make it easier to hold and tape each petal on.
8. The weight of the flower needs some stability in the stem. Take 2 pieces of 18 gauge wire and insert them into the other wires. Continue to tape down the length of the stem with half green florist tape.
9. Your Peony is now completed!
I was super happy with how my first Frilled Oriental Open Peony turned out, it definitely has a realistic flare to it. I checked with Google Photos and it agrees my Peony is a Chinese Peony Flower!
I went ahead and made some Peony buds and leaves to complete the look.
If you make this Frilled Oriential Open Peony using my tutorial, please let me know! Leave a comment in the comment area below. Take a photo of your gorgeous flower and tag it #arisecakecreations on Instagram. I love seeing your Arise Cake Creations!
