Floral Challenge

I think I had a nosebleed. Today is the first day of my basic fondant and gum paste cake decorating class. For those who are not familiar what these are, fondant is the kind of icing used to cover cakes. It's those really smooth ones you see in local bake shops. Gum paste on the other hand is the material used to make life like flowers. It's similar to clay.

There were twelve students in class and my mom is my classmate. How cool is that? Anyway as I was saying about my nosebleed, doing life like flowers isn't easy. Take for example a carnation. I couldn't figure out how to make it look real while my seatmate did it right the first time. Huhu. :-( There was just too much to do before the paste dries out. I had to score the petals and sort of make the petals look tattered. After which I had to roll out another paste for the second layer of of petals. Sigh.

This whole exercise is challenging me and I was thinking, maybe this is my perfectionist side crying out loud - I have to do this right and it has to be done perfectly! Good thing I was able to steer my thoughts away from my perfectionist tendencies. Well on Monday I'll be practicing at home so when I get to class on Tuesday, I won't have another nosebleed.

P.S. I will post pictures of my gum paste flowers next week. Abangan!