Making Sugarcrat Roses

Roses - completed

These are the three sizes of roses that I have decided on for my design of the cake. The only thing that I have to do to them is to dust them with shiny, ivory petal dust, but I won't do this until they are very dry and hard. Now then, back to the next 3 dozen roses! LOL.

I cannot do any more to the cake as it is far too soon. Although rich fruit cake keeps for years, the marzipan colour can leach into the icing if it is done too soon. I always use the natural marzipan instead of the yellow, which helps to minimise this leaching, but I won't take any chances!

Roses - next stage

In this picture I have put three different sizes of the roses, so that you can see how they develope. When I am happy with the size and shape......each rose seems to develope a character all of its own - rarely are two exactly the same.....I finish them off with a green calyx and seed pod. I will post a picture to show the finished flowers.

Wedding Cake Roses

I have not done any tatting for a while now for two main reasons.

One: I have had to travel long distances to see a professor about my back problem and:

Two: I am now in the throws of making my son's wedding cake flowers. The rich fruit cake is already made and maturing nicely. I made it with a half bottle of brandy in the mix, so it should be well matured by the time the wedding comes along in September!

Charlie's bouquet is going to be roses and so she wants roses on the cake.

I start with making a teardrop shaped bud on a wire (as you can see in the first picture). I made 6 dozen centre buds! I then add each petal individually. So far I have done 3 dozen with 4 petals each. Some will stay as tight buds, the others will grow into larger flowers the more petals I put on them, and also increasing the petal size.

I will post more pictures as they develope.