Purple

I found a cake on Flickr that I fell in love with and waited for the opportunity to copy it. A friend was hosting a personal shower for a friend she grew up with. She liked the cake so I tried it.

My flower and dots are a little different than the original cake. I wish I had better lighting in my kitchen because the picture just doesn't do this cake justice.

Originally I had iced the cake in buttercream, but because of a change in the shortening formula I use I couldn't get the cake smooth. I was really disappointed so at the last minute I decided to cover the cake in fondant. The dots are white royal icing. Once they dried I painted them with silver airbrush color.

The flower is purple gumpaste. I used a circle cutter, cutting 6 circles for the bottom layer and 5 for the top layer. I used bits of parchment paper to prop the petals until they dried. I let the flower dry a few days then steamed* it and brushed it with violet luster dust. It turned out really well, looking like purple metal.

*I don't have a tea kettle, so I boiled a pot of water with the lid on. I left the lid just a little crooked so that steam would come out in a stream and then waved the flower through it a few seconds at a time. I learned that the luster dust won't stick as well if you don't steam the gumpaste first.