Gumpaste honeysuckle is a pretty and unexpected addition to sugar flower floral arrangements on Spring wedding cakes.
Honeysuckle comes in multiple colors, including white, yellow, and pink. This is the pink version, but you can make it in the other colors if they go with your arrangement better.
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Materials Needed:
- Small yellow stamens
- Thicker floral wire
- Thinner floral wire
- Dowel with a pointed and rounded end
- Small scissors
- Floral tape
- Crisco or cornstarch for your fingers
- Foam board
- Petal dusts in green and the color you’re using for the flowers
Make the buds.
To make the buds for the center of the bunch, wrap a sausage-shaped piece of gumpaste around a thin wire with a hooked end.
Make the piece relatively thin, and make up to 10 in a variety of lengths, from about ½” to 1” long.
Let these dry.
Prepare the stamens.
To make the centers, take 5 yellow stamens and cut the heads off one end.
Using a thin wire, wrap the stamens onto it, with the tape starting about 1” below the top of the stamens.
Make at least 5 or 6, since each bunch of flowers needs about that many open flowers.
Make the flowers.
For the open flowers, use a piece of gumpaste about the size of a round grape.
Roll the ball out into a sausage shape. One end should be fatter than the other.
Make a small cut into the fatter tip of the sausage. It should be slightly off-center.
Open the cut end and flatten the two sections out.
Insert the pointed end of the dowel into the throat of the flower to open it up.
When the center is open, start shaping the lower petal by pinching and elongating it.
Using a foam board and the rounded end of the dowel, frill the larger side of the petals.
Shape the edge of the petal by pressing it with the pointed end of the dowel to make the edge uneven.
You can also cut the edge a little, depending on the type of honeysuckle you’re making. It will look fine as long as the edge is uneven.
Curve the two petal sections back and away from the center.
If either side is too short to give a good curve, thin it out by pinching and stretching it.
Take one of the stamen centers and insert it into the throat of the flower.
The stamens should stick out from the flower a little.
Put the flower on its side to dry so that you can arrange the petals in the way that you want them to dry.
Alternate flower variety:
To make the trumpet-type of honeysuckle, start with the sausage like you did before.
Insert the pointed end of the dowel into the sausage.
Pinch and frill the tip of the opening with your fingers and the pointed end of the dowel to give it a flared shape.
Insert the stamen center into the trumpet. This type of honeysuckle is usually yellow or a golden yellow color.
Color and wire the flowers together.
To color the buds, brush a little green petal dust at the base of the buds.
Brush pink petal dust at the top of the buds. The closer the buds are to opening, the more pink will be on them.
Each bunch of honeysuckle should have multiple buds, some smaller and greener than others.
Brush pink petal dust on the flower.
Brush some green petal dust at the base of the flowers.
Wrap the buds together with the floral tape.
Start wrapping the flowers at the base of the bunch of buds. Wrap at least 5 or 6 on each bunch.
Wrap the stem with floral tape and enclose all of the wires at the base to make sure nothing is poking out.
The finished bunch should be fanned out.
You can also use individual buds and flowers on cakes if you don’t want to use entire bunches.
