Fondant sugar flowers make very pretty cake decorations. While making lifelike flowers may seem like a daunting task, there are simpler sugar flowers that do not require as many skills as the more complex ones. Yet they work wonders when used to decorate cakes.
I am sharing on this page, one such idea for easy to make fondant sugar flowers that anyone can make. I made these fondant flowers for a unicorn birthday cake. While the cake required lots of these flowers in a range of rainbow colors, it was fun to make them. And after a few tries, I was able to make them pretty fast.
How to Make Fondant Sugar Flowers
Main supplies for the fondant sugar flowers:
- Fondant – I made the flowers using Satin Ice fondant. I tinted white fondant in the colors of the rainbow.
- Food colors – I used gel food paste from both Wilton and Americolor to tint my fondant.
- Simple blossom silicone mold – The mold is used to form the flowers and is the main tool for this project. It has 2 parts and has veins imprinted on the inside. Both need to be used together for every flower (more on this below).
- Flower petal cutters – As I mentioned above, I made these fondant sugar flowers for a unicorn cake and I made the flowers in 2 different sizes. For the larger ones, I used a 5 petal metal cutter that came as a set with the silicone mold above. For the smaller ones, I used my existing flower plunger cutter which was purchased separately.
- Flower former – since I made lots of these flowers, I used painting palettes to dry the flowers. These palettes are relatively inexpensive and of the right size to hold the flowers in shape while drying.
How to make the flowers:
Cutting the petals
- For the larger fondant sugar flowers, I used a metal petal cutter. To begin with, roll your fondant thin, but not as thin as you would if using gum paste. This is because fondant does not work well when rolled too thin. Cut out the petals.
Using the silicone mold
- Next, place the cut out fondant flower on the silicone mold .
- The mold has 2 components, one is concave and the other convex. Dust both with cornstarch and place the fondant cut out on the convex component.
- And then, using your fingers, loosely press the fondant piece such that the fondant cut out rests loosely on the convex without being stretched. This step helps in avoiding the fondant from being stretched too much when the concave mold is placed on top and pressed down. And this in turn helps to avoid tears in the center of the sugar flower due to overstretching.
- Another important tip to remember when pressing both the components of the mold together is to make sure not to put pressure in the center. Instead, only press all the five sides of the mold to imprint the veins on the petals.
- Pressing the center of the mold tends to stretch the fondant. This can cause tears to your fondant flowers (especially the centers), so do be vary when pressing the molds.
- Also, make sure the top and bottom components of the mold are placed on top of one another correctly. Both components have a small cut on each. These cuts are to be inline in order for the flower to be formed properly.
- Here is how the fondant sugar flowers would look like after being veined with the mold.
Unmolding the fondant flowers
- If the fondant sticks to the mold, I normally use my needle tool to gently remove the flower.
- Place the veined fondant sugar flowers in a flower former until they set and hold shape.
- The silicone mold can not only be used for large flowers, it can also be used for smaller ones.
- The process of making the smaller fondant sugar flowers is similar to making the larger ones. Except that the fondant flowers need to be cut using a smaller flower cutter.
- Again, the mold has to be dusted. Also, the fondant cut out must be placed loosely on the convex. This will avoid it from being overstretched when the other silicone mold is placed on top.
- And this is how the fondant flowers would look like after veining. Again, if the flowers stick to the mold, I find using a needle tool helpful in removing the flowers without damaging the petals.
- And again, place the fondant sugar flowers in flower formers until they are set and able to hold shape.
- And that was how I made my easy fondant sugar flowers.
Attaching the fondant flowers to your cake
- These fondant flowers can be placed directly on cakes. I used them as the mane for my unicorn cake and they were attached to the cake using shortening.
And that’s pretty much my tutorial for easy fondant sugar flowers.
Happy decorating 🙂
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