This wired gumpaste anemone tutorial will show you how to create this native woodland flower, making a great addition to a woodland themed wedding cake or special occasion cake.
Anemone flowers come in lots of different colours – white, pink, purples and lavender, reds and more – so you’ve a broad palette to choose from.
Gumpaste Anemone Tutorial: Materials
- Black gumpaste
- 18-guage wire (white or green)
- 24-guage white wire
- 30-guage wire (white or green) or anything from 26-guage upwards
- Needle-nosed pliers
- Edible glue
- Powdered gelatin or semolina
- Black petal dust
- Cake dummy
- Bunch of black stamen (how many? Double ended)
- 2 petal cutters (a 1 ½ inch cutter and a 2 inch cutter or thereabouts)
- Rolling pin
- Apple tray from the grocery store
Gumpaste Anemone Tutorial: How-To
Take one third of an 18-guage wire make a hook on the end with a needle-nosed pliers.
Dip the hooked end of the wire into edible glue and wipe off the excess. Insert the wire into an ball of black gumpaste (about half an inch/1.5cm diameter). Pinch the ball of gumpaste at the bottom to secure it to the wire.
Make up a small dish of black pollen dust by mixing a little powdered gelatine (or semolina) with black petal dust. (This step isn’t strictly necessary – it makes the anemone look more botanically accurate but to be honest, I don’t think it’s worth the frustration of sometimes ending up with a speck of black petal dust escaping from the center and staining your beautiful pink or white anemone. I usually just forget the pollen part altogether. You can also use black sparkling sugar as an alternative as well if you can find it – it’s not always readily available though.)
Paint the top half of the black ball of gumpaste with edible glue and dip into the black pollen dust. Tap the wire to release the excess.
Stick the wired gumpaste center into a cake dummy and leave to dry overnight.
Take a 30-guage wire and bend in half over the center of your bunch of stamen.
Twist the two “legs” of the wire underneath the stamen to secure them tightly.
Fold the two ends of the stamen upwards to meet together.
Wrap florist’s tape around the base of the stamen to secure.
Making the petals: Roll your gumpaste into a sausage shape and place horizontally on your board/work surface.
Then roll out – away from you – keeping the end closest to you thicker than the rest of the paste.
Placing your petal cutter on the paste with the bottom of the petal (where you’ll be inserting your wire) at the thick edge, cut out 5-6 small petals and 6-7 large petals.
Place the petals on a foam pad and run your ball tool gently along the top edge of the petals (with the ball tool half on the petal, half off) to thin the top edge.
Cut four 24-guage white wires into quarters. Take a wire and dip into edible glue, wiping off the excess. Insert the wire about half an inch into one of the petals, pinching at the end to secure it to the wire.
Ever so slightly fold back the left and right edges of the top of the petal and leave the petal to dry in an apple tray former overnight. Repeat for all of the petals.
Once the petals have dried and before you start assembling, a handy tip is to tape the wires with floristry tape. This gives the wires a certain tackiness which prevents the petals from spinning loosely around the center when you are taping the flower together.
Assembling the anemone: once the flower center has hardened, take the bunch of wired stamen and insert the wired gumpaste ball through the center as shown.
Adjust the stamen so that they are spaced fairly evenly around the center.
Next start taping the first row of petals around the flower center with the petals sitting just below the stamen.
For the second row of petals, start taping the first petal between where two petals above meet and continue around the flower like so.
Continue taping down the full length of the stem to finish your gumpaste anemone. Then take a bow!
