I am a huge fan of small sugar filler flowers. Why??? Because they are pretty, fairly easy to create and make even the simplest of wedding cakes look fabulous. The sad fact is though, that these small sugar flowers are often forgotten about when it comes to cake decorating and that’s a massive shame.
When I first started making wedding cakes, I totally focused on learning how to make gorgeous big sugar flowers. I loved nothing more than making a couple of huge roses, placing them onto a stacked cake, adding a few leaves and then standing back to admire it all (although back then, it did actually take a good three days to create a couple of roses and leaves, there was no such thing as speed when I first started making sugar flowers!!!). BUT (I know I shouldn’t start a sentence with a but, BUT….) I soon started to get bored with the same large flowers and having to add some texture (lace, ribbon) to make the cake look finished. Plus my big gripe was that my style wasn’t unique!!!! As much as I was selling cakes I wasn’t selling that many…. and that bugged me (by which I mean hours of convincing myself I was rubbish and that no-one liked my work).
And then I discovered filler flowers. These little beauties totally changed everything. Suddenly people were noticing my cakes and bookings were on the up. Why?? Because filler flowers add subtle detail, they add little splashes of colour, they are soft and pretty and quite simply “fill in the gaps”. I was finally able to start finding my own unique style too which was exciting!!!
Of course, there’s an art to working with these Tinies. Too many and the cake looks cluttered, put them against a heavy rose and the cake looks unbalanced… but get them right and believe me … you’ve moved your cake decorating onto a whole new level. You can add height to your top tier, you can create interesting cascades and twirling vines … (and of course, cover the odd little mistake here and there too …. Ssshhh)
The other great thing about learning how to make filler flowers is that you can adapt the skills you learn for making one flower and use them to create a totally different flower. Once you know how to put stamens in the centre of petals, use the Mexican hat technique to create perfect sugar stems, use moulds, glazes and know how to burn wires, you can literally make anything you want. You’ll be hooked once you’ve learnt how to bring your flowers to life using edible dust, granular food colours and hand made paints, I know I was.
So, have I converted you??? Learning how make sugar filler flowers is possibly the best thing you’ll do as a cake maker!!! Which is pretty great isn’t it!!!!
