When I had big cakes that were going to involve a ton of gumpaste flowers, I always started making the flowers ahead of time.
Not all gumpaste flowers have stamens, but it’s good to know how to make them yourself in case you need to save some money.
There are a lot of different types of stamens and flower centers, but there are two main types that can kind of work for a lot of different flowers.
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Method 1 for gumpaste stamens.
In the process of looking at the book and magazine instructions for gumpaste flowers that I’ve collected over the years, I kept running into the instructions for making stamens out of thread.
I thought I’d give it a try since I hadn’t done stamens that way for a while.
Some flowers, like cherry blossoms, apple blossoms, peonies, clematis, wild roses, anemones, and poppies, have a lot of stamens.
Sometimes it’s more economical to make them out of thread than it is to buy them pre-made.
This is a fairly mindless activity that you can do while you’re sitting watching tv in the evening.
Start by wrapping yellow thread around two fingers to form a loop.
Next, twist the loop into a figure eight. (You can also do this by wrapping a wire around either end of the loop and then cutting the loop in half to make two centers, but I think that the figure eight is more secure.)
After that, twist a thin wire tightly around the twist of the figure eight to hold the thread in place, and wrap the wire around itself.
Cut the loops off of the thread loop, leaving as much length as you want for the type of center that you’re making.
At this point you’ll need to turn the tv off and go into the kitchen, or somewhere else that you have a counter, because the dusting colors are coming out and it could get messy.
Mix up some gum glue using water and tylose or gumtex, and dip the tips of the stamen into it. If you want the entire stamen to be stiff, you can dip the entire thing into the glue.
Dip the tips of the thread into the color dust that you want for that particular stamen, and then use a toothpick to separate any threads that are sticking together. You want to get a feathery look, so the threads should be separated.
Let the stamens set up, then use them to make the flowers.
I put one in a little blossom for this example.
If you’re using them for poppies or any other flower that has a large center with the stamens surrounding it, you should find a photo of the flower to see how you should arrange them.
Those might not even need to be dipped into the gum glue, since the configuration is different.
If you need a stamen that doesn’t spread out so much, just tape the base of the threads so that they’re more upright.
Method 2 for gumpaste stamens.
Another type of stamens is good for flowers like tulips, daylilies and some peony-type flowers.
These are longer and have a little tip that has the pollen on it.
When florists use dayliles they often remove the end of the stamens, because the pollen will get all over everything.
To make these, you can use either yellow or brown dusting powder.
You’ll need some 32 gauge wire, water or gum glue, Wilton gumtex (this is the only thing I’ve ever found that this is good for), and the color.
Use the round end of a church key can opener to open the little powder containers unless you enjoy breaking you fingernails off.
First, cut the wires to about 3″ or 4″ long, then bend the tip back to be about the length of the area on the stamen that has pollen on it.
Some wires might need to have the wire then curved like a little “L” to mimic the shape of the stamen, like daylilies have.
After that, dip the end of the wire in the water or gum glue, then dip it into the gumtex.
Next, dip it BACK in the water/gum glue, then into the color powder.
Stick the wire into a styrofoam block to dry, or put them on a waxed-paper covered cookie sheet.
They shouldn’t be touching while they dry or they could stick together.
You can also use confectioner’s glaze, dip the wires, then dip it directly into the color, but this tends to gum up the color pretty quickly.
Let the wires dry, and shake the stamens gently to release any loose powder.
You can see the amount of dust on my hand that came off of these stamens.
Some of it will release, but most of it will stay on the wires.
You can use these in bunches for open peonies, or in groups of 6 for tulips and daylilies.
Or you could wire a bunch together and call it ragweed if someone is looking for an allergy cake.
