How to Make A Gumpaste Sunflower & Leaves | Sugar Flowers
I must admit, I feel a bit odd writing about a Sunflower Tutorial now! Why you may ask? As Autumn rolls in it makes way for the beautiful, elegant Sunflowers. They are amazing flowers to look at and great flowers to make.
In Thailand the Sunflowers actually bloom from November - February, creating the most amazing Sunflower fields, which are a gorgeous, carpet of golden yellow.
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In the Sunflower fields in Khao Kho Phetcabun, Thailand
Whatever time of the year they spring up, Sunflowers are amazing flowers to look at and great flowers to make in gumpaste (in sugar).
The sugar Sunflower I have created, looks more like the ‘Giant Yellow Sunflower’ species, with bright yellow petals and a dark brown centre. I hope you enjoy making it!
Equipment Required
The full list of equipment is outlined below the photo.
Tools
28 gauge white florist wire (for the petals)
24 gauge florist wire (for the leaves)
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.
Peony calyx and leaves use the template - For the petals if you don’t have a cutter
A glass cup
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 buds and leaves 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.
Yellow Gumpaste
Brown 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.
Making This Sunny Sunflower
Making The Petals
The petals look like sun rays coming from this beautiful flower, hence the name ‘Sunflower’.
You may feel a bit overwhelmed by the number of petals that Sunflowers have, when you first look at it. However, I can assure you, once you get a production run going and master the technique of making the petals, the process goes very quickly. I made the petals in batches of 8-10 at a time, which also helped.
I made 40 petals, but also made some extra petals, this is super important, you may regret it if you don’t. I actually broke some of my petals as I assembled the Sunflower, fortunately I had enough extra to cover the ones that broke.
NOTE: I will be sharing 2 methods for making the petals, so you can choose the method that is easiest for you.
Begin by cutting one length of white 28 gauge florist wire into 8 pieces. You will need 40 pieces in total, plus a few extra. Place them into a container, so they can be kept together.
To cut the petals I used the cutter that I used to make the calyx for my Peony Tutorial. If you don’t have this shape cutter, you can use my Free template that I provided for the Peony calyx. Colour your gumpaste yellow. I used a mixture of AmeriColor’s Egg Yellow & Sugarflair’s Primrose, gel colours.
Condition the gumpaste with a little vegetable shortening and roll it our fairly thinly.
Use the cutter or template to cut out your petals. I found it helped to cut the petals in batches of 8 - 10 at time. Keep the petals in either a zip lock bag or keep them between 2 acetate sheets to stop them from drying out as you work on them.
PETAL METHOD 1: Carefully thread the 28 gauge florist wire into the base of the petal. You only need to push the wire about 1cm - 1.5cm into the petal.
Thin the edge of the petal on a foam pad with a ball tool.
Use a veining tool or a JEM Textured Veining tool to texture the surface of the petal.
Slightly pinch the tip of the petal and the base where the wire is, into a slight point. Then move the petal into a natural shape, so it has a little bit of movement in it. Allow the petal to dry on either a bumpy foam pad or in some scrunched up foil.
Make all the petals in exactly the same way.
PETAL METHOD 2: The ‘Twiddle Method’ - I have called it this, because you literally twiddle the gumpaste onto the florist wire. Your gumpaste needs to be very soft for this method.
Take a very small amount of gumpaste. Push the gumpaste on about half way along the wire and then begin twiddling and twirling the gumpaste onto the wire. It needs to be twiddled onto the wire very thinly.
You should not need to use any sugar glue, just push the area where the gumpaste was attached onto the base of the petal, make sure it is firmly adhered in place.
Proceed to thin and texture the petals in exactly the same way as the first method. Then set the petal to dry in a natural shape as per the first method.
NOTE: Make sure all of your petals are dry before moving onto the dusting stage.
Dusting The Petals
When your petals are completely dry they are ready to be dusted. Use a mixture of yellow, red edible dust to create the desired shade of orangey red. Then use a touch of brown at the very base, to bring a bit of depth. I used the following colours: Sugarflair Primrose, Crystal Colors Cherry For Katie & Tree Bark.
Use a clean brush to apply your mixed colour to the base on the front and back of the petal and a slight touch of colour to the tip of the petal. Make sure the colour blends in well and is a nice transition from the petal colour to the dusted colour.
Brush a small amount of brown to the base of the petal, just to add a bit of depth.
Dust all of the petals in exactly the same way.
Prepare The Sunflower Stem
This is a quite a big flower, so you need the stem to be strong.
Use 6 pieces of full length 18 gauge florist wire or you can make the stem from a wooden skewer.
NOTE: Use full length florist wire if you want your Sunflower to be used in a floral display. You could opt to use a shorter length of wire to create this Sunflower OR make it with no stem, so it can be placed directly onto a cake.
If you are using the 18 gauge wire. Tape the wires together with full width light green florist tape.
Sunflower Centre
So the flower does not end up being super heavy. Use a styrofoam ball for the back of the flower. You can choose to omit this step, if your flower will be placed directly onto a cake.
Have a 7cm styrofoam ball ready. Cut off a quarter section from the styrofoam ball.
With the quarter section of styrofoam, make a hole in the centre of the domed part.
Using a glue gun, squeeze glue into the hole, then quickly but carefully place the stem into the hole. Hold it until the glue has dried and the stem is securely in place.
Bend the wire from the styrofoam about 2 -3cm along from the styrom, So your flower will be slightly angled.
Making The Centre
For the centre, I suggest using a mix of fondant and gumpaste mixed together. Mixing the gumpaste with the fondant will give you enough time to work with it. It will have a slower drying time, allowing the texture details to be done and for the petals to be pushed directly into it as well.
Prepare 14g dark brown fondant & 36g brown (dark brown if you have it) gumpaste. It should be a total quantity of 50g when combined. Knead the fondant and gumpaste together well.
Make the gumpaste/fondant mix into a disc shape, it needs to be big enough to cover the styrofoam base.
Brush some edible glue over the styrofoam base and then place the disc into position. Make sure it covers the edges of the styrofoam base. It does not have to cover completely over the dome at the back.
Texture The Centre of The Sunflower
You can use a variety of sugar crafting equipment or tools you have in the kitchen to texture the centre of the Sunflower.
I used angled tweezers, some cocktail sticks taped together. I also had a tea strainer to hand, but after experimenting, found the texture didn’t look right, so opted not to use it.
Use a ball tool to hollow out the centre.
Use cocktails sticks taped together, to create multiple dots in the centre that was hollowed out.
Use angled tweezers to pinch the texture on the outer edge of the Sunflower.
Paint The Sunflower Centre
If your Sunflower is not as dark as you would like it. You can paint it to achieve the shade you desire.
I used edible dust colours in Sugarflair Matt Black, Crystal Colors Cherry For Katie (red) & Tree Bark mixed with lemon extract to achieve the colour I wanted.
When you have your colour ready. Paint the entire Sunflower centre. Allow to dry. You may have to go in with a few coats of paint to achieve the dark shade.
Dab on small amounts of yellow edible dust around the centre, so it looks like pollen.
Preparing The Sunflower Petals
Cut the wire of the petals down to around 1cm in length. This will make it easier for them to be pushed into the Sunflower centre.
The Sunflower centre, should still be soft, so it will be easy to push the petals directly into the centre.
First Row of Petals: Start the first row of 20 petals around the lower area of the centre. Dip the petal wire in a little sugar glue or water and carefully push the wire into the centre. Make sure the petals are securely in place.
Second Row of Petals: The second row of 20 petals will sit along the top of the first row of petals and in the gaps of the petals below. Dip these petals in sugar glue or water as well, before pushing them into the centre.
NOTE: Any petals that have broken, can still be used at the back of the second row of petals, to fill in any blank spaces.
Making The Calyx
To cover up the back of the flower, make the calyx to go be positioned on the back.
I used AmeriColor Leaf Green mixed with AmeriColour Brown gel colours to get the right shade of green.
Roll out the green gumpaste. Have a 9cm round cookie cutter ready. Brush the back of the flower (styrofam) with sugar glue or water. Cut out a circle, use a skewer to make a hole in the centre of the circle.
Thread the circle down the stem, push the circle into place over the back. Take your time doing this, so the circle fits nicely into place.
Use blossom cutters to cut out the calyx. I used the largest size blossom cutter (which was 10cm diameter).
Roll out some more green gumpaste. Cut out the first blossom shape. Here is where the magic happens! Reposition the blossom cutter again, you will now see you have a shape similar to a Sunflower, cut this shape out, this is now your first calyx.
Place the calyx onto a foam pad, using a ball tool, thin the edges. Make a hole in the centre using a skewer. Lightly brush some glue or water onto the calx, then thread the calyx down the stem into place on the back of the flower.
You can choose to make either 1-3 layers of calyx.
NOTE: It helps to rest the flower face down onto a tissue or sponge as you work and move the calyx into place.
Making The Sunflower Leaves
Sunflower leaves have a heart like shape. So if you don’t have a Sunflower leaf cutter, no need to worry, use a heart cutter, then cut the leave into the correct shape. This is what I did and it worked a treat!
Roll some green gumpaste over a groove board. Position the heart cutter over the groove line, so the groove line is about half way up the leaf. Cut out the heart shape.
Use a shape scalpel (exacto knife) or sharp ordinary knife, to further cut the leaf into shape by cutting away a small amount from the two curves of the heart, leaving a slight point where the florist wire will be threaded.
Brush a 24 gauge wire with some sugar glue, then thread it through the groove of the leaf and secure it at the base of the leaf.
Use a leaf veiner to vein the leaf. Or use a veining tool to draw in the vein lines.
Thin the edge of the leaf, using a ball tool on a foam pad.
The Sunflower leaves have a serrated edge - Use a cocktail stick to start off the texture around the leaf edges.
Use a scalpel (exacto knife), to cut away small pieces of the edge of the leaf, to further obtain the serrated edges to the leaf.
Bend the leaf slightly in the centre, you can use a wooden skewer to help to do this. Shape the leaf into into a natural shape and allow to dry on a bumpy foam pad or scrunched up foil.
NOTE: Make as many leaves as you need.
Dusting The Leaves & Calyx
I used a range of green edible dusts mixture together, to obtain the right shade of green.
I used Sugarflair’s Moss Green, Spring Green, Primrose Yellow and Crystal Colors Tree Bark, mixed together.
When the leaves are dry, dust with green edible dust. Use dark green through the centre and the edges of the leaves. Use the light green over the surface of the leaves. Dust both the back and the front in the same way.
Use the same green shades to dust the calyx as well.
Assemble Leaves to Stem & Finish
Use half width light green florist tape to tape half way down the stem of the leaves.
Angle the leaf slightly to a 45 degree angle. Use half width light green florist tape. Tape on the largest size leaf first (if you have one),
Tape on any smaller leaves slightly lower down on the opposite side.
Once assembled you can lightly steam the flower and leaves using either a steamer or over some hot water in a sauce pan. Be careful when steaming the Sunflower and leaves.
The delightful Sunflower with leaves is completed and ready to brighten up any sugar floral display or cake!
I hope you enjoyed this tutorial. If you make this Sunflower & Leaves, please remember to tag me - #arisecakecreations - @arisecakecreations on Instagram or Facebook, so I can see your beautiful creation.
