I’ve never been very good at working with cake lace. I’ve had plenty of lacy disasters as a wedding cake designer. In fact, I have had so many close-calls, that I ended up simply buying lace ready made. However at a recent sugar-art show I was given some samples of Flexique’s Instant Edible Lace. It looked like the answer to my lace-making prayers. So naturally, I was eager to try it out. I created these pretty lace flowers; I was very impressed with the product. Flexique instant lace is very user friendly, and best of all- incredibly time saving.
Prepare lace using Flexique Instant Edible Lace according to the written instructions. Flexique Instant Edible Lace can be colored to any color, just melt and add edible food color. I used white Americolor.
Color gumpaste with a small amount of edible food color, I used Americolor Rose. Knead well and place inside of a food storage bag to prevent from drying out.
Roll out the paste and cut 6 petals for each flower you want to make (I used an anemone cutter). Make sure the paste is fairly thin, but thick enough to insert and hold a 26 gauge wire.
Insert 26 gauge floral wires into all the petals and place one at a time inside of an anemone double sided veiner.
Replace the other half of the veiner and apply even pressure to impress the vein patterns and to thin and shape the petal.
Place petals onto a foam pad and using a ball tool, gently roll around the edge of the petal to thin and shape.
Take your prepared lace and lay flat
Using the same cutter as for the petals, cut out petal shapes from the lace and adhere to the petal with some flexique glue or edible glue
Repeat the above step until all your petals are prepared as shown.
To shape and dry the petals, either place into a forming tray or into a small piece of aluminium foil, cupping the petal and gentle creating a cupped petal shape.
Allow the petals to fully dry for 48 hours before arranging into a flower and wrapping with floral tape. (I used a decorative bead as the center of my flower, which I threaded onto floral wire and secured with floral tape)
The finished flowers are delicate, feminine and pretty- a perfect adornment for a wedding or celebration cake.
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About the Author
Rebekah Wilbur is Editor of American Cake Decorating Magazine and owner of Rebekah Naomi Cake Design, a custom cake boutique located in Virginia, USA.