Bringing May Flowers Early

April showers brings May flowers...I'm sure you've heard that phrase before...or something similar.  We haven't really had too many showers this month...a few here  and there.  But it looks like bright, beautiful sunshine from here on out...well, at least until December ;)  That's the perks of living in Southern California!

So, I'm helping May out by bringing flowers early!  I love the look of fondant flowers.  Although they do not look as realistic as gum paste, fondant brings a simplistic sophistication to sweets.  I needed to make some fondant flowers for J's wedding in July (they will be going atop some fabulous cupcakes!)...since I had time in the last few days, I figured "why not make them now?"  This way, they will be done and out of the way.  One less thing to worry about! :)

So I brought out my supplies for making fondant flowers and got to work!  It wasn't too bad...I only had to make about 50 flowers...Although, these 50 flowers would take about 3 days from start to finish (must account for drying time!).  What I had done for the trial was to cut out the flowers, let it dry, paint on pearl dust, and then add the pearly centers. This was fine, since I didn't make too many flowers.  However, when it comes down to an amount like 50...I knew that painting 50 flowers with uncooperative pearl dust, onto fragile flowers, would be a nightmare!  It's too bad I didn't think  about that until after I made 50 cut outs of flowers (sans pearl dust)!   >.<  ...doooh!...

Hrmm, I thought...it might just be worth it to cut out 50 more (but this time with pearl dust dusted on already!)...yes, that certainly outweighed individually painting each fragile flower!!  Yes, yes, I know I could potentially be wasting more pearl dust than needed, but seriously, have you ever painted with pearl dust??  It's not as easy as you'd think!?!  So, that's what I did...rolled out my fondant, painted it with pearl dust, then cut out the flowers!  Voila...!  That certainly made life easier!! :)

Don't they just make you happy by looking at them? :)

And one of the best news of the day?...I didn't waste that first batch of 50 flowers (sans pearl dust)!  I used this noggins of mine and came up with this:

I stacked two petals together to form a slightly larger flower and used three pearls for the center.  They are special flowers meant for a special cake :)  

I hope J will love them as much as I do!