Free Tutorial - Gothic Lace Flower

I recently spent an amazing 3 days in Kitchener ON learning from my friend James Roselle as he was guest instructing at Icing Inspirations.  While I was there, I was able to pick up all the molds I pre-ordered from the Elissa Strauss fashion line.  On my drive home, I had a bunch of ideas going through my head, including one that I thought would be awesome on a goth style cake.

To make my Gothic Lace Flower, you will need:

Tricot Lace Mix – white

Tricot Décor Nature LaceMold

Bench Scraper

Black Airbrush Color

Skull Cameo Mold

Black Gel Color

Gumpaste (I prefer fondarific brand)

Spray Glaze

Gum Glue

Silver Highlighter

Lemon Extract

Start by making your center.  Make a small amount of grey gumpaste using the black gel color.  Take a tiny amount of the grey and color it black.  Use an even tinier amount of black, marble it in with the grey and cast your skull cameo.  Allow to dry overnight.

Mix some tricot lace medium using the package instructions.  To get black, I substituted in some black airbrush color by weight with the water.

Spread the medium over your lace mat (my mat is black, so I used a white mat for you to see it easier)

Bake according to package instructions (I usually leave it in until it is no longer tacky to the touch).

Remove leaves from mat and pace on bumpy foam to give them some shape and allow them to dry.

Paint the base of the cameo with highlighter mixed with lemon extract.  Allow to dry then spray with glaze – this will prevent the silver from coming off and will also help you achieve a true marble look to the skull.

Use a small circle of gumpaste as a base and adhere 3 of the same leaves to it with gumglue.  

Repeat with a second layer of leaves (different style) to fill in the spaces.  Add your skull cameo center and you have a fairly quick and easy Gothic Lace Flower (I left mine on the bumpy foam since it was really humid the day I was shooting the tutorial).

I really hope you enjoyed this tutorial – it helped me get into a dark place and come up with a few cool projects for a class I will be co-teaching with Suzanne of Savauri Sugar in early October – “Macabre Flowers”.  If you want to take part in the class, be sure to follow me on Facebook and Twitter (@morselsbymark) to keep up to date when the class is officially announced.  Also, be sure to check out the Morsels By Mark Store  where I am now making available some of the most requested tools from my classes.

Until Next Time – Happy Caking!