Galleries

A celebration of Bougainvillea tutorial

One of the hightlights on my career was making this tutorial for Cake Masters 100th Edition in January 2021

I hope you enjoy this partial tutorial. For the full tutorial please visit https://cakemastersmagazine.com/ and subscribe to their magazine. They have amazing tutorials like these in every issue.

TOOLS 

Crystal Candy leaf veiner

Rose leaf cutter

Small Blossom cutter

Needle nose plyers

Wire cutters

Steamer

White wire 24 and 28 gauge

Foam pad

Ball tool

Gum Paste (Nicolas Lodge recipe)

Crystal Candy Delft printed wafer paper

Ruler

Toothpick

Floral tape green

Wafer paper glue

Edible glue

Cell pad

Small leaf cutter

Paint brush for glue

brush for dusting

Covered 15cm cake

DUST COLOURS:

Chilli Red- Rolkem

Barney Purple- Rolkem

Orchid yellow- Rolkem

Pink- Rolkem

Aubergine- Rolkem

Ivory- Rolkem

Peony pink- Rolkem

Moss- Barco

GUMPASTE COLOURS:

Avocado- cake flora

Deep pink- Barco

Cerise Pink- Barco

Brilliant purple- Cake flora

Ivory- Cake Flora

Dusty Rose- Cake Flora

TUTORIAL STEPS

STEP 1

Mix your gum paste colours

Avocado green by cake flora- (for leaves)

Dusty Rose- cake flora (or blush pink bougainvillea)

Ivory- cake flora (for orange bougainvillea)

Brilliant Purple- cake flora (for purple bougainvillea)

A mixture of Cherise pink and deep pink- Barco (for the pink bougainvillea)

White gum paste for the blossoms and the white bougainvillea.

STEP 2 (stamens)

Create the stamens by taking a little ball of gum paste and working it around the wire. Keep a bit of bulk on the top part and narrow towards the bottom. Create 3 little lines on the top of your stamen to create a closed stamen for your bougainvillea.

For the purple bougainvillea use purple gum paste for the stamen.

For the pink bougainvillea use pink gum paste for the stamen.

For orange bougainvillea use orange stamen.

For the blush pink and white bougainvillea’s use green for the stamens.

STEP 3 (stamen blossoms)

To create the tiny flower stamen, take a small ball of gum paste and work it around the wire keeping some bulk on the top of the wire for the flower to attach to.  Create a little hat by turning the stamen on its head and gently thinning out the sides to create a base for your white flower to stick to.

Cut a little white flower with your blossom cutter and gently place the flower on top of the stamen base. Place the stamen in your large foam pad hole and with a small ball tool attach the top. Use a toothpick to make a hole in the centre of your blossom.

Create 3 stamens for each flower, some open and some closed. All the blossoms will be white for all the variations. I made 18 stamens in total for this project 10 of which were open blossoms in varies colours that suited the flowers I made.

STEP 4 (Petals)

Cut out 3 Rose petals with your cutter.  with the sharp side of your rose cutter, cut a little chunk out of your bougainvillea.  This will help the petal sit better in the end. With a ball tool thin the edges of the petal slightly.   Place the petal in your leaf veiner.  On the back of the petal use a small ball tool to curve the edges slightly backwards and create movement.

Leave the petals to dry  by placing it in Styrofoam upside down.

Create 3 petals per flower.

For this arrangement I made 1 blush pink, 1 orange, 1 purple, 1 white and 2 pink bougainvillea’s

STEP 5 (Leaves and twirlies)

Roll out your green gum paste on a cell pad and cut out leaves.  Thin out the edges with a ball tool slightly and vein them using the leaf veiner.  Pinch the leaf in the centre to create the centre line more clearly.   Go over the edges with a ball tool one more time to give slight movement to the leaf.  Leave to dry in a piece of foam.

To create the twirls, roll up some floral tape and twist it around a brush, skewer or tooth pick.  For this specific arrangement I made 14 leaves and 8 twirlies.

STEP 6 (Dusting Petals)

Dust the entire petal with the colour closest to the gum paste.  Use darker colours to highlight the centre and edges. For the Pink Bougainvillea  mix the pink with a tiny bit of purple to create a deeper pink and then  dust on the front and back of the petal.  Use the chilli red to deepen the middle of the petal and the darken the edges.

Use the same formula for all the petals except the white bougainvillea.

For the white bougainvillea  mix a little bit of green with the yellow and gently brush the edges and centre with the green powder.

For the stamens  dust a little colour on the stem that is similar to the stem and then add a little yellow dust to the centre of the blossoms.

STEP 7 (steam)

It is important to steam the flowers before placing them on the cake to keep the dust from falling onto your white cake but also it brightens up the colours of the flowers

STEP 8 (Assembly)

Using green floral tape start by taking a little twirly, then add one or two leaves.   if you wish you could add another twirly.   Add one flower at a time.  For this arrangement I made 4 little bunces and two sets of leaves.  Start with my first bunch and gently added the other bunches, adding leaves and twirlies for some colour and variation.

STEP 9 (assembly/ final dusting)

Dust the stem with a final coat of green dust to cover any undusted parts to create a uniformed stem. Place the end of the wire in a straw. If you don’t have a steamer you could use the steam from a boiling kettle.  Be careful for any water splatters.

I hope you enjoyed this short tutorial: for FULL tutorial with the wafer paper cake ruffle please subscribe to cCAKE MASTERS Magazine. They have awesome tutorial every months.

Cake Masters Magazine The Cake Decorating Magazine