There’s a birthday cake just around the corner and that means that any sugar decorations that are part of its design have to made up front. Being able to make the sugar decorations well in advance means that the cake itself can be baked as close to the event as possible, preferably within 24 hours. This means the freshest possible cake.
Today, at last, I was able to finish off making the sugar butterflies. I’d made the gumpaste a few days ago and cut out the butterfly shapes. These were left to dry for a few days (it’s been raining so it takes a little longer to dry out properly). Out came the paint brushes and the petal dusts. I guess you could call petal dusts the equivalent of pastels in artwork.
While I was painting them, I kept being reminded of the art classes I took quite a few years ago. Sheila was the most wonderful teacher. She taught us far more than I think she must realise. I find myself recalling a lot of what she covered – not just when I was painting the butterflies, but also when I take photos, think about colour, contrast, tones… and even drawing upside down! The classes were incredible fun too and we always came out of class giggling like kids let out of class in kindergarten. It was a fine experience which, all these years later, reward me in many more ways than I could ever have guessed at the time.
So, the sugar butterflies… people often ask how long it takes to make the sugar decorations that go on a cake. I don’t know the accurate answer to that but it does take a while. I reckon that a sugar orchid takes about half an hour for a very simple orchid that doesn’t need much painting, and a large rose can take up to an hour depending on its size.
As for the butterflies, well, the painting today took several hours for the whole…what’s-the-collective-noun? of butterflies.
Here’s the process.
As mentioned, the butterflies had already been cut out a few days before and left to dry. I used tangerine gumpaste because the butterflies are all of an orange hue. The first step was to brush the inner wings with orange petal dust.
Sugar Butterflies brushed with orange petal dust
The outer section of the wings were dusted with a pale terracotta. Then, using a dark brown petal dust, the top edges were darkened.
Dusting with different colours gives the butterflies depth
The next step takes the most time – painting in the detail. I used black to colour the veins and the markings, and finally the body and wing edges were dusted with the same colour.
Some of the butterflies after painting in the detail
Finally, all the butterflies were painted! But that doesn’t mean that they’re finished yet. The last step in the process is to deepen the colour and to “set” it. This is done by gently steaming the butterflies, taking great care not to get them too wet or they’ll start to dissolve.
And at last, the butterflies are done.
The finally finished butterflies
What do you think?
Not only is it Valentine’s Day, but it’s also my sister’s birthday and my brother’s birthday (they’re not twins but share the same birthday). So what better excuse than to bake! And what better cake to bake than Red Velvet for Valentine’s because of its wonderful red and creamy white colour.
