How to make gum paste roses
I have received many requests on how I made the large pink gum paste roses on the Cath Kidston cake. The secret behind them is not me, but a fantastic cake designer named Fran McGregor. She have made the most wonderful rose tutorial. The way she guides you through the process is very clear and easy to understand. Well Fran were so kind to give me permisson to upload the rose tutorial on CakeJournal.
IMPORTANT NOTE! The video is not viewable anymore. I will as soon as I can, make my own large gum paste rose tutorial.
Unfortunately the video file was too large to upload on CJ and I even tried youtube with no luck. But do not worrie you will find the rose tutorial, via this flickr link here.
Note: You will have to scroll down and look for Frans (franjmc) comments to find it.
In the video is also listed all the equipments to make the rose, including the recipe for her fantastic modelling paste.
Good to know tips!
1. To make sure that the styrofoam egg will fit the JEM easy rose cutter. Bring along your cutter, so that you are buying the right size of styrofoam egg. Well at least with the two largest easy rose cutters 100mm and 110mm. For smaller roses use smaller easy rose cutters, rose petal cutters and make the cone out of gumpaste instead.
2. A block of styrofoam is great to place the wired rose cones in the start of the process. Later the roses need to hang upside down to dry through the process so make sure that you have either a broomstick or anything similar ready before you start on the roses (I just use my small drying rack for my roses).
3. The thin piece of foam that is used in the video is a great “helping hand” when attaching the rose petals.
4. I use the rose petal cutter set from TinkerTech Two wich is really nice and dont forget to use the tylo glue.
If you want to see more fantastic roses and cakes please visit Fran’s own website it is such a beautiful sight.
You are of course also welcome to have a look at my “old” rose tutorial here on CJ.
Happy Caking
Louise
1. Lindsey
May 5th, 2009 1:53 am
I’ve never worked with gum paste, so I was wondering–does it taste any good? I’m loathe to put anything that people can’t eat on a cake (like fondant, *shudder*).
2. Jacque
May 5th, 2009 2:21 pm
It’s a magnificant rose!! Thank you, as always, for sharing!!
3. nadibakes
May 5th, 2009 2:23 pm
this is the most beautiful rose i’ve ever seen!!!
4. Pily
May 5th, 2009 3:13 pm
wowwwww…. Fantastic…. TK
5. marielba
May 5th, 2009 3:24 pm
Thanks Louise for this tips
6. Carla Guillermety
May 5th, 2009 3:57 pm
These flowers are the most beautiful roses I’ve ever seen!!! I can’t wait to try them myself!!! I think I’ll give it a try for Mother’s day!!!
Thank you for all your wonderful tutorials and for making others available to us!!!!
Best regards from San Juan, Puerto Rico
Carla Guillermety
Sugar Diva Cakes
7. Leona
May 5th, 2009 3:59 pm
Thank you for sharing your photos and Fran’s website/tutorial. These are just beautiful.
8. Rach
May 5th, 2009 5:33 pm
I want to make the tylo glue, but it isn’t available locally, and I want it ASAP, however, I can get gum tex. Can gum-tex be substituted for tylose?
9. Dhanya
May 5th, 2009 6:56 pm
Thank you so much for the Tips and the video.
10. Kathy
May 5th, 2009 8:32 pm
I love cake journal, I refer friends all the time.
Instructions are easy to follow and you get great results.
Thanks for sharing with us.
11. June
May 5th, 2009 11:32 pm
Thanks Louise & thanks to Frances, this is a wonderful tutorial.
12. NotJustThe CakeLady
May 6th, 2009 12:41 am
Couldn’t find the rose tutorial
13. Fanny
May 6th, 2009 2:00 am
Hi Louise, what an awesome sight!!! I was wondering what is the size of the petal cutter which u used for this fantastic set of roses. thank you for sharing….
14. Anita RM
May 6th, 2009 3:24 am
Thanks for sharing inspirational roses and the great tips! you are always helpful!
15. Louise
May 6th, 2009 9:23 am
Lindsay: Personally I dont eat gumpaste decorations, Gum paste gets very hard when all dried up. Also with these roses you have at styrofoam center so they are not edible. They can be made with 50/50 gumpaste and fondant if you want them “more” edible. The great thing with gum paste is that it is very flexible when working with gum paste flowers also when dry the flowers feels more light to handle.
Rach: I think you can or you can use egg white too as a glue or some fondant mixed with water.
CakeLady: You have to scoll down and look for it in the comments in the link. I would have loved if I could have uploaded it to the site but I cant.
16. goodbaker
May 6th, 2009 3:36 pm
i can’t find the tuturial with her name franjmc in comments above. am i missing it somewhere??
17. Louise
May 6th, 2009 8:16 pm
goodbaker: Click on the pink link where it says “here” in the post. This will take you to her photo stream on flickr. scoll down about 23 comments and you will find a link to the rose tutorial.
18. goodbaker
May 6th, 2009 10:46 pm
thank you so much.
19. miss Liza
May 7th, 2009 1:58 am
what a great idea to use styrofoam for the rose. But i never seen egg shaped before, were can you by them?
20. lilia
May 7th, 2009 3:06 am
Those roses look magnificent!
Thanks for the tips and tutorial. I can now go ahead and start trying to perfect mine
21. 杭州订蛋糕
May 7th, 2009 8:24 am
Very beautiful, very realistic feel this cake very happy.
很漂亮，很逼真 这蛋糕让人感觉很幸福．
22. kelly
May 7th, 2009 11:05 am
Hi,
These roses are devine…I was wondering if you knew of supplier in Australia who sells these cutters, I’m having trouble locating them here.
PS: love you blog
Kelly
23. Louise
May 7th, 2009 11:49 am
Kelly: try blossomsugarart.com – cakedeco.com.au – carolines.com.au
Thanks!
24. Judi
May 7th, 2009 10:36 pm
How large are these in diameter? It’s hard to tell from the picture. They are just gorgeous!
Thanks.
25. Gis
May 10th, 2009 5:23 pm
OMG Lou this flowers are AMAZING!!! xD
I received yesterday 2 dozen cupcakes and wanted to show youuuu xD i’ll be emailing you some pics really soon to get your expert opinion xD
26. rhiannonbandascott
May 11th, 2009 6:45 pm
The roses are just stunning. I catch my breath every time I see them! Great work louise
27. Selby
May 12th, 2009 9:08 am
Wow!!! These roses are so gorgeous!!!
28. goodbaker
May 13th, 2009 10:50 pm
Where can you find the styrofoam egg centers? I haven’t seen them anywhere.
29. dEBBIE
May 14th, 2009 5:55 pm
I can’t find the eggs either. I’m in Florida USA. Any idea where I can get them or order them from. Thanks……I love these roses!!!
30. Louise
May 14th, 2009 11:46 pm
Goodbaker & dEBBIE: I get them from my local craft store. So you should be able to get them from Michaels. Try and type “styrofoam eggs” on Google.
The size on the egg should be a bit smaller than the cutters you are going to use.
31. Louise
May 14th, 2009 11:49 pm
Judi: aprox 4″/ 10cm
32. Louise
May 15th, 2009 11:53 pm
You can get “celbuds”/styrofoam eggs from here aswell http://www.shop.confectionerswares.com/category.sc?categoryId=54
33. YooLee
May 19th, 2009 3:17 pm
Hi! this is a very beautiful rose! anyway i’m looking for gumpaste recipe, thinking about making my own gum paste coz the course here are incredibly expensive! heard that gumpaste are much better for making dummy cake, which also last longer than fondant? thanks!
34. Louise
May 19th, 2009 9:32 pm
YooLee: If you see the rose tutorial there is a gumpaste/modeling paste recipe wich is so great to work with. You could also visit Nicholas Lodge’s website: http://www.nicholaslodge.com/gumpaste.htm
35. Nicole
May 22nd, 2009 4:57 am
This cake is just beautiful. I was wondering what colouring brand and colour you used for the roses and leaves because I have not been able to find colours this pretty!!
36. Mary
May 23rd, 2009 9:39 am
I really want to learn how to do this flower but unfortunately, flickr site is blocked in my country. Is there any where else i can see the tutorial
37. Louise
May 30th, 2009 10:37 pm
Nicole: I used pink and a green (advocado) color for the roses and leaves. Only add the color for the leaves sparingly. The brand is Americolor.
Mary: ohh bummer! no im sorry…. The link is only on flickr
Wich country do you live in??
38. LIsa
August 21st, 2009 4:08 am
Hi Louise!
Beautiful roses, absolutely lovely. Do you make your own gum paste? If so, any chance of a future tutorial on it?
Cheers, keep the great work coming.
You inspire us all!
39. Louise
August 24th, 2009 9:36 am
Llsa: I make my gum paste as noticed in the rose tutorial video. I have not had any luck making it from scratch. You can mix some tylo powder/gumtex to your normal fondant for a quicker version. Try search for gum paste recipe. I know that many like the one from Nicholas Lodge.
40. Rena
September 9th, 2009 6:19 pm
HI….I have just found this website today. Beautiful roses. You talk about a video. Is there a video somewhere that explains how to create these roses? I found the tutorial is that all?
Thank you,
41. Louise
September 11th, 2009 10:27 pm
Rena: There is a video (not mine) but you will have to click on the link in the post (read down 8 lines to the pink link “here” click on that and it will take to flickr/photos of large yellow roses. Here you have to scroll down and look for comments by(franjmc) and in one of her comments is the link to her rose tutorial.
Im sorry its like treasure hunting getting to the actual rose tutorial, but the video is to big to upload here on CJ which she gave permission to in the first place. So this is the only way.
42. Rena
September 14th, 2009 6:14 pm
Louise,thank you. I will try that
43. sarah.a
October 9th, 2009 1:05 am
those are so great thanks so much I’ll try to make them
44. Carmen
October 20th, 2009 6:45 pm
Beautiful! But the flicker link is not working. Is there another website that the tutorial can be found on? If you would be so kind, please e-mail me.
45. Louise
October 20th, 2009 7:22 pm
Carmen: I think that the whole flickr is down at the moment, because I cant access via the main page. So you have to wait a bit. The rose tutorial is only on that flickr page.
46. Louise
October 20th, 2009 9:34 pm
Carmen: Flickr is working again
47. DonnaG
November 18th, 2009 4:48 am
Instead of styro foam, try a Hershey Kiss! As for fondant, I actually love the taste!
48. Linda Kurie
January 4th, 2010 9:00 am
WOW! As if they are fresh roses…
49. Ana
January 13th, 2010 12:21 am
I just tried going into Fran website and view the tutorial on the rose, but it cannot be found. Is there another site that has the rose tutorial
50. Louise
January 13th, 2010 10:54 am
Ana: You need to click on the “Here” link, because the video is on flickr.
51. Alejandra Palafox
January 18th, 2010 9:56 am
These roses are so beautiful, unfortunantly I can’t find the tutorial. If you could please, please help me find it. I would love to learn how to make such magnificent flowers.
52. Louise
January 18th, 2010 10:57 am
Alejandra Palafox: Please read through the post again. When you come to the “Here” link, click and it will take you over to a flickr site. Now you have to scroll down the page, looking for comments from franjmc. In one of her comments is the rose tutorial video.
53. Ace of CAKES!
March 10th, 2010 4:17 am
I found it! I made them for my daughters birthday cake!
54. Cindy Vickers
March 25th, 2010 4:16 pm
What size styrofoam cone did you use? I see they have many different sizes and want to make sure I get the right one.
Thanks
55. Laverne
April 16th, 2010 5:36 am
I love these roses but for some reason can’t pull up the video – my computer downloads it but when I try to play with Quicktime it tells me “This is not a video file”. Any suggestions?? LOVE your site! Thanks for all the great tips!
56. Louise
April 26th, 2010 10:01 pm
Cindy Vickers: mine are about 30x35mm (if you can get them a bit smaller would be good. Because mine are a bit too big for the JEM cutters. You can also try and look for “celbuds” from Cel Cakes.
Laverne: It is a very long video, so maybe this could be the problem?
57. Rachel Walker
May 14th, 2010 11:11 pm
58. Louise
May 18th, 2010 10:47 pm
Rachel Walker: Im sorry but I dont know what is wrong. I am however working on updating my own rose tutorial and hopefully they will look just as good. There have been a lot, who could not get access to the video.
59. Isabelle
June 23rd, 2010 9:49 pm
Wow! Absolutely amazing roses… and great tutorial. Can I just ask how you attached these roses to your cake? Thanx x
60. Louise
June 30th, 2010 10:56 pm
Isabelle: These roses had wires pushed into a peice of extra fondant ball on the top tier. You can see it on the photo.
61. Tami
July 10th, 2010 11:19 pm
Such beautiful, amazing roses!!! I really wish I could access the video also.