Sugar Dahlias

A finished dahlia.

Sugar paste dahlias, as it turns out are made with daisy cutters of varying size. They aren't terribly hard, but then again they are quite tedious. You have to work quickly but still carefully and relatively precisely when you are frilling the petals. You have to brush each layer with petal dust before you put them together and then touch up the whole thing at the end (unlike roses which are typically dusted at the end only). But they aren't as difficult as roses, since the petals are all attached to each other and you just have to put on layers of them.

In the process of making the outer petal layers.
Notice the parchment between the petals to hold them
in position as they dry.

I found a great guide online at Lulu's Sweet Secrets. I generally followed her guide for mum style dahlias. A few notes/pointers for using the guide:

1. Make sure not to make the base too big. Mine were around the size (maybe slightly larger than) a shooter marble, which was really too large.
2. I colored my gumpaste rather than depending on petal dust only for the color. I did still apply petal dust to each layer.
3. I used a bit of green petal dust at the base of the petals used for the outer couple of layers.
4. I applied petal dust to both sides of the petals since you can see the undersides of many of the petals. (Of course you only need to do one side of the inner most layer of petals since the other side is glued flat against the base.)
5. I found that the inner petals needed some stretching and cajoling to get them into position. On my smaller bases, I had to remove a petal from the innermost layer in order to get everything to lie flat.
6. I let each petal set (except for 2 inner most sets) dry a bit with little pieces of parchment holding some of the petals up to help them look more natural before sticking them together.
7. I dried them hanging upside down on a rack. I found that the outer petals needed bits of parchment under them to hold them out so they didn't dry too flat and downwards (see photo below).
8. I made a few small dahlias (sort of bud-like). For those I only used the first 4 petal sets (leaving off the ones made with the largest cutter).
9. They aren't terribly fragile (but like all sugar flowers, when they are dry they shatter porcelain) and if you chip off one outer petal no one will notice. That said, I'd advise making extra!

A dahlia drying upside down with bits of parchment
 holding the petals up and in place.

Stay tuned to see the finished flowers on a stunning (if I do say so myself) four tiered cake.