cake decorating techniques:
fondant flowers - frangipani
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Of all the cake decorating techniques, one of the most intimidating for a beginner is making fondant flowers.
It's one of the more advanced cake decorating techniques worth tackling. Once you master a few simple tricks, you'll be whipping out beautiful floral accents in no time.
In this tutorial, I'll show you how to make a frangipani. These elegant blooms add a touch of class to any cake, from simple birthday cakes to spectacular five-tiered productions.
You can buy special frangipani cutter, but unless you're planning on making these flowers all the time, you'll get more bang for your buck with a graduated set of generic leaf/petal cutters. That's what I used for this demo.
what you'll need:
cake decorating techniques - fondant flowers - frangipani
- fondant - your favorite brand or make your own
- Daffodil, Sunflower, Mushroom and Chartreuse Petal Dust
- generic Leaf/Petal cutters
- small Fondant Rolling Pin
- several 1/4" wide artist brushes
- large container with at least 2" depth of all-purpose flour
- Flower Formers
or curved surface to dry leaves on
- Multipurpose Leaf Veiner
- ball tool from a Fondant Tool Set
- Fondant Shaping Foam
- small container of water
- small saucepan of just boiled water
here's how you do it:
cake decorating techniques - fondant flowers - frangipani
1. Cut a piece of fondant about the size of a golf ball and roll out to 1/8" thick. Use a medium peteal/leaf cutter to cut five petals. Use a small, sharp knife to round the wide tips of each petal.
2. Place one petal on the shaping foam and gently push the fat end of the ball tool down and around into the widest part of the petal, forming a nice cupped petal. Set aside. Repeat until you have five cupped petals.
3. Lay one petal across your left hand. Dip a brush in water and dab the excess on a paper towel. Dampen the right-hand edge of the petal. Lay a second petal on top, as shown.
4. Dampen the right-hand edge of the uppermost petal and repeat.
5. Continue this process until you have five petals joined together, as shown.
6. Dampen the left hand edge of the first petal and cup the flower into a cone shape to make the final join between the first and fifth petals.
7. Poke a hole in the flour with your finger and gently place a frangipani in the hole. Arrange the petals how you like them (a little bend here, a little backward curve there) and leave to dry out for 2-3 days.
8. When the flowers are completely dry it's time to add some gorgeous color. Tip a tiny amount of 'Daffodil' and 'Sunflower' petal dusts into the lid of each container (a little goes a long way). Load up one of your brushes with 'Daffodil'.
9. Starting at the very center of the frangipani and extending about 1/4 the length of each petal, dab and brush the color on until you like the shade.
10. Go back and darken the center with 'Sunflower' petal dust to add more depth to the finished frangipanis. You now have a completed frangipani. Repeat steps 1-10 for each flower.
how to make the leaves
cake decorating techniques - fondant flowers - frangipani
1. Roll out a golf ball sized piece of fondant to 1'8" thick and use the same cutter you used to make the petals, this time without rounding the tip. Fondant starts to dry out pretty quickly so only cut about six leaves to work on at a time.
2. One at a time, place the leaves on a leaf veiner and press gently with your fingertip, to add some great texture to the leaves.
3. Put the leaves on a flower former or other curved surafce to dry, about 2-3 days for complete drying. When they're completely dry, paint first with 'Chartreuse' petal dust, then lightly with 'Mushroom' petal dust. This two-tone effect gives a much better result than one flat color.
4. Steam each leaf, for several seconds, over a saucepan of just-boiled water to give the leaves a beautiful, shiny finish.
assembly
cake decorating techniques - fondant flowers - frangipani
1. Place each bloom where you want it on the cake, with a leaf behind the flower. Beautiful!
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