Sugar Paste Tulips

My red and white striped tulip

Oops, I forgot to show you these along with the other sugar paste flowers I made. I think the tulips came out lovely and quite realistic. You have to make each petal with a wire in it, just like we did for the rose leaves. Then you attach them to each other using floral tape. I've dabbled in flower arranging and have, on occasion, wired flowers for use in an arraignment or as a boutonniere; the procedure for using wired sugar paste petals or leaves is very similar to that for using wired flowers/petals/leaves in real flower arranging. A little petal dust can give realism to the outer edges of a rose and it can do the same for the center of a tulip. It gives depth to the center and also looks like a little pollen from the stamen got on the petals (which often happens in flowers like tulips).

These tulips look like parrot tulips in full bloom. But with a different cutter, you could easily make a standard tulip. I'm not sure how close you can gather the petals--because the sugar paste must be completely hardened before you can put the petals together--but you can probably get a flower that is more closed than the ones I made.

My white tulip