Fruity Gum Flower Recipes

Steps:

• Heat oven to 350°F (325°F for dark or nonstick pans). Grease bottoms and sides of 2 (8-inch) round cake pans with shortening or cooking spray.
• Make and bake cake mix as directed on box for 8-inch rounds. Cool 10 minutes; remove from pans to cooling racks. Cool completely, about 1 hour. For easier handling, refrigerate or freeze cakes 30 minutes to 1 hour or until firm.
• On serving plate, place 1 cake layer, rounded side down. Spread with 1/2 cup of the frosting. Top with second cake layer, rounded side up. Frost top and sides of cake with remaining frosting.
• On sugared surface, use rolling pin to roll gumdrops into oval shapes.
• Place 23 gumdrop ovals around the edge of the top of the cake, overlapping slightly. Create a second circle inside the first circle using 15 gumdrops. Repeat once more in the center of the cake with the remaining 7 gumdrops. Place a miniature marshmallow in the center of the cake to form the center of the flower.

Steps:

• Put the raspberry candy in the center of the cupcake. Put 8 fish, heads up, in a petal pattern around the raspberry. Put the remaining 13 fish in a petal pattern around the first set.

Steps:

• Place 2/3 cup juice in a small bowl or measuring cup and sprinkle with gelatin. Let sit 5 minutes. Meanwhile, in a medium saucepan, combine remaining 2/3 cup juice and 1 1/2 cups of the sugar. Bring to a boil over medium-high and cook, stirring, until sugar dissolves, 5 minutes. Add preserves and whisk to combine. Return to a boil and cook until thick and syrupy, 2 minutes. Add gelatin mixture and whisk until gelatin dissolves. Pour through a fine-mesh sieve into an 8-inch square baking dish. Refrigerate until set, 3 hours (or up to 2 weeks).
• Place remaining 1 cup sugar in a pie plate or shallow bowl. Cut fruit jelly into 1-inch squares. Toss in sugar to coat just before serving.

Steps:

• Take a small piece of gum paste and wipe your hands and work surface with it to pick up any dust that may stick to your popcorn as you shape them.
• Knead the yellow gel food coloring into the gum paste to color it pale yellow. Place the gum paste into a resealable plastic bag. Tear a small piece of the yellow gum paste, roughly the size of a kernel of popcorn, and roll it into a sphere. With a pointed flat-edged fondant tool, use the edge to indent around the bottom of the sphere about 1/3 from the bottom of the sphere (it will look like a snowman with 2 balls). Use your fingers to flatten the bottom ball and make it into a cup it by thinning out the edges over your finger tip. With a medium ball fondant tool, indent the center of the "cup" to create a crater, working along the edge to thin it out, creating a wavy skirt-like bottom. After the center has been hollowed out and an edge has formed that looks like the bottom of a ruffled skirt, dust the inside of the crater with cocoa powder. Coat a thin skewer with shortening and push through the piece of popcorn through the center to create a hole for the string to pass through.
• While the popcorn kernel is still on the skewer, take the pointed fondant tool and ball tool again and re-form anything that was smooshed when making the hole. Remove the skewer.
• Knot the end of a string (however long you desire in as many pieces). Coat the end of the string in shortening and string the pieces of popcorn. Repeat until all the popcorn are on the string. Knot the other end of the string as you finish.

Steps:

• Put the almonds in a petal pattern slightly off center on the cupcake. Put the gumball in the center of the almonds. Cut the jelly candy into 2 thin strips and arrange as vines between 2 almonds. Cut the fish in half and put one half next to the vines.