• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to content
  • Skip to primary sidebar

Sugar Ruffles

Wedding Cake and Sugar Flower Blog

  • Inspiration
  • Tutorials
  • Reviews
  • Contact Us

Tutorials

Iridescent Anthurium Sugar Flower Tutorial

December 31, 2020      Leave a Comment

Today I’m sharing our brand new iridescent anthurium sugar flower tutorial. A FREE step by step video tutorial on how to use petal and lustre dusts to create a iridescent effect on sugar anthurium flowers.

Also know as unicorn anthuriums, these are such a fun flower to make and colour. I first saw these flowers popping up on lots of floral designers instagram and just knew I needed to make a sugar flower version. They look so shimmery under lights! I’m going to show you how to create this really pretty effect using petal and lustre dusts.

Iridescent Anthurium Sugar Flower Tutorial

In this tutorial, you’ll learn :

-1-
How to transform your sugar anthuriums using petal and lustre dusts
to create a unique and fun style

-2-
Step by Step
How to create an iridescent effect

-3-
Tips and techniques
 to transform the way you use petal dusts to colour your sugar flowers

Click here to watch it now!

This Tutorial is a Must See if…

You’re excited to learn more about using petal and lustre dusts and you want to make something really fun and unique!

I hope you enjoy the tutorial. If you have a go at making these make sure you tag me @sugarruffles. I’d love to see them!

#MeetTheMaker

November 16, 2020      Leave a Comment

Earlier this month I took part in the #meetthemaker challenge over on instagram. A 6 day challenge designed to tell you a bit about the story of my business, with a new prompt each day. 

Say Hello

The first prompt in the #meetthemakerweek challenge was ‘Say Hello’. So I’m saying hello and telling you a little about me and my business ‘Sugar Ruffles’. 

I’m Charlotte, and it’s 10 years this week since I first started my wedding cake business! I still remember getting my first enquiry from my very first customer, the day after I launched my website. I couldn’t quite believe it was actually happening! 

#meetthemaker

Before I started my business I was a primary school teacher and originally started my business as ‘Charlotte’s Cupcakes’ mainly making cupcakes, cake pops and celebration cakes, before moving into wedding cakes, once I found a love for sugar flowers. Then I rebranded as Sugar Ruffles and have specialised in creating sugar flower wedding cakes ever since. 🌸

It has been a huge learning curve for me over the last 10 years. (You can see my very first sugar rose and the progression through to some of my most recent roses below) but I have loved finding my own style and continuing to develop my skills. 

#meetthemaker

I’m a huge Disney fan, so when I’m not making wedding cakes my favourite thing to do is visit Disney World with my family. But like most people, any holidays have been postponed for the foreseeable future, so I’ll be watching the Christmas parade on Youtube this year instead of in person. 🎄

2020 has been a very different year for everyone, and the impact on the wedding industry has been huge. (more on that in tomorrows challenge prompt!), but I have loved having some extra time available to launch my new online course, ‘Sugar Rose Artistry’ and membership ‘Sugar Flower Artistry’. It has been a lot of fun teaching again and very rewarding seeing all the amazing progress my students have been making.

Pivot

The next prompt in the #meetthemakerweek challenge was ‘Pivot’. This is something that so many businesses have had to do this year. I know we have! We started this year with over 100 wedding cake bookings for 2020, but have ended up with only 5 wedding cakes! It has been really difficult time for both couples and wedding suppliers. 

But, thankfully the majority of people have postponed, rather than cancelled weddings and I’m really looking forward to the time we can get back to weddings again!

So, to pivot the business during this time I decided to move forward the launch of my first online course. I had originally planned to create and launch this next year. But during the first lockdown I had time to create and recorded everything and we launched our 8 week online course ‘Sugar Rose Artistry- A masterclass in creating and colouring sugar roses and the art of creating sugar flowers’ in August. 

We have just finished the course with our first group of students and we’ve had such amazing results! Here are some of our Sugar Rose Artistry students beautiful sugar roses! 

#meetthemaker

I’m going to be offering this course again early next year and we have quite a few people already on the waiting list! You can sign up for the waiting list over at sugarroseartistry.com/join if you’re interested in joining us next year. We also have created the Sugar Flower Artistry- membership where we are teaching a different sugar flower each month to our members.

New for Christmas

We have a brand new free tutorial available! All about how to use petal and lustre dusts to create an iridescent effect on sugar anthurium flowers. This is such a lovely unique flower to make and perfect for the next #meetthemakerweek challenge prompt ‘New for Christmas’

I hope you enjoy the tutorial! Make sure to tag me if you have a go at using this technique, I’d love to see how you use it in your flowers or cake designs. You can watch then free tutorial here sugarflowerartistry.com/free

Silver lining

The next prompt in the #meetthemaker challenge was ‘silver-lining’

One of the silver-linings of this year has definitely been having more time to work on my online sugar flower classes. This is something I’ve wanted to do for a while, and its been so much fun! Even though I really had to get out of my comfort zone to actually get on video! I think I must have re-recorded my first video about 10 times! 

My favourite sugar flowers to make are roses and I’ve had a lot of requests for Rose tutorials, so this became the starting point for my first online course ‘Sugar Rose Artistry’. I really wanted to incorporate a module on pricing into the course too because I know so many people struggle with pricing. This is something that I really struggled with when I first started, I didn’t even know where to begin! But now after 10 years in business, I’ve developed a system to price my sugar flowers, and now I finally feel confident with pricing my flowers. In ‘The Art of Pricing Sugar Flowers’ I’m sharing my step by step system with you, so that you can work out a price for each and every sugar flower you make and start to feel more confident with pricing your work too. 

I’ve also been able to start my Sugar Flowers Artistry Membership where I’m teaching a brand new sugar flower each month for my members. This month we are focusing on sugar flower foundations and are putting together our sugar flower essentials kit and making filler flowers including blossoms, billy buttons and Veronica flowers. We also have two petal dusting projects as well as an overview of all the elements and principles of sugar flower design. Enrolment for this is currently open, so come and take a look if you’re interested in joining us at sugarflowerartistry.com/join

2020 has definitely been a different year with so many wedding postponements, but there have been lots of positives too!

Community over Competition

I was so happy when I saw the next prompt for the #meetthemaker challenge ‘community over competition’. This was exactly what I had in mind when creating the sugar flower artistry community. I wanted it to be a really supportive space, where we celebrate all achievements along the way, no matter how small. 

It makes me so sad to see beginners in cake groups saying that they don’t want to share photos of there work because it’s not good enough. But I can completely relate! 

When I first started, I shared ALL my cake pictures and flowers on my blog and over in a Flickr cake group. I was a complete beginner, but I didn’t worry about sharing my work, I was really proud of everything I was creating. But then as I began to share my work on social media, I fell into the trap of comparing my work to others and started to hold back on what I was posting, always feeling like it was not good enough.

It’s so important to remember that everyone is at a different stage in their journey and to celebrate all the progress you’re making along the way. “Don’t compare your beginning to someone’s else’s middle.” -Jon Acuff 💕

Shop Small

The final prompt in the #meetthemaker challenge was Shop Small.

Make sure you take a look at some of the amazing makers who have been taking part in the #meetthemakerweek challenge. So many lovely and unique ideas for Christmas presents from lots of creative small businesses! 

At the moment we have our Sugar Flower Artistry membership open for enrolment, which would make a great gift for anyone who loves sugar flowers (or perfect as a special treat for yourself! ) 

Or if you’re looking for a fun project, you can try our free iridescent anthrurium sugar flower tutorial. You can also sign up for our free sugar rose workshop coming up in January or join the waiting list for our 8-week Sugar Rose Artistry online course starting at the end of January. I’ll be sending out an exclusive special offer for everyone who has signed up on the waiting list. You’ll find all the links for these in our profile.

It’s been really fun taking part in the challenge. Thank you to everyone who has liked and commented on my posts over on instagram and thank you @joannehawker for organising it!

Lovelace Rose Sugar Rose Workshop

August 4, 2020      Leave a Comment

Lovelace Rose Sugar Rose Workshop

Today I am sharing some details about my new FREE Lovelace Rose Sugar Rose Workshop

A FREE step by step video workshop on how to use petal dusts to Raise the Level of Artistry in your Sugar Roses 

Lovelace Rose Sugar Rose Workshop

In this Workshop, you’ll learn :

-1-
How to transform your sugar roses using petal dusts
 making the shift from creating standard sugar roses that look like everyone else’s, 
to creating artistic sugar roses that will really stand out.

-2-
Step by Step
how to use petal dusts to colour a Lovelace sugar rose

-3- 
Tips and techniques
 to transform the way you use petal dusts to colour your sugar flowers

-4-
The little-known secret of how to clean your brushes as you work
so you’ll never need more than 3 brushes to dust your roses

Here’s a little sneak peek…

I’d love to invite you to my new FREE Lovelace rose workshop, A step by step video workshop on how to use petal dusts to Raise the Level of Artistry in your Sugar Roses.

I’ll also be telling you more about my brand new online sugar flower course Sugar Rose Artistry

Choose the time that works best for you here and please share with any of your friends that you think would love this.

Lovelace Rose Sugar Rose Workshop

I can’t wait to see you there!

How to mix the Perfect shade of Dusky Pink for Sugar Flowers

July 28, 2020      Leave a Comment

Today I’m sharing my new guide- ‘How to mix the Perfect shade of Dusky Pink for Sugar Flowers’.

Dusky pink is the most requested colour by my brides, when I’m making their wedding cakes, so I have made a lots of different shades of dusky pink over the years.

I use food colouring gels to colour my flower paste when making sugar flowers. By mixing different gel colours together you can make so many different shades!

Here is a little look a dusky pink memory lane sugar rose I have been working on. I coloured the flower paste dusky pink before adding petal dusts to create the finished rose.

In my free guide I’m going show you how to:

? use colour theory to help guide you when mixing colours for sugar flowers

? mix neutral colours with pink to create a variety of dusky pink colours.

? mix the exact dusky pink colour I use as a base for my Lovelace sugar roses

You can download your free copy here

How to mix the Perfect shade of Dusky Pink for Sugar Flowers

There are a few different ways to mix the perfect dusky pink. We’re going to explore the colours that we can create when we mix neutral colours with pink. Download your copy now to see all the different colours that you can easily create for your flower paste.

How to mix the Perfect shade of Dusky Pink for Sugar Flowers

Keep an eye out for next weeks blog post. I am going to opening enrolment for my brand new FREE Online Lovelace Sugar Rose Workshop! 

Sugar Craft Dusts Explained

June 24, 2020      Leave a Comment

Sugar craft dusts explained

Sugar Craft Dusts Explained

Do you know your petal dust from your blossom tint? What exactly is the difference between pearl dust and lustre dust? Is glitter dust edible?

I’m breaking it all down here today, so you’ll know exactly which dust to use on sugar flowers, which dust will give you a metallic finish for edible jewellery and which dust you can use to paint a light- catching shimmer onto your cakes. In my ‘petal dusts explained’ guide

So let’s take a look at all those different types of sugar craft dusts and how they can be used in my ‘sugar craft dusts explained’ guide….

Petal Dust (also know as Blossom Tint)

Petal dust has a matte finish and is used to decorate sugar flowers. You can apply petal dusts with a dry brush for natural looking detail or you can mix with Rejuvenator Fluid to make an edible liquid paint. You can mix petal dust with white to create lighter shades. and mix with other petal dusts to create a wide range of shades.

Pearl dust

Pearl dust gives a sparkly, pearlescent finish with just a hint of colour. Pearl dust can be mixed with petal dust to create a shimmer. You can mix it with Rejuvenator Fluid to make a sugarcraft paint or use it dry.

Lustre Dust (also know as Luster Dust)

Lustre dust comes in a variety of subtle colours and produces a beautiful and light catching lustre effect and a shine. You can mix it with white lustre dust for paler shades and mix with Rejuvenator Fluid to produce an edible liquid paint that you can brush directly on to icing.

Highlighter Dust

Highlighter dust gives a high-sheen, metallic finish. Highlighter Dusts are available in several different metallic colours and shades, some of which also offer a sparkle finish. Highlighter Dusts can be dry brushed directly on to your decorations or mixed with rejuvenator spirit to form a paint.

Sparkle Dust (also know as Glitter Dust)

Sparkle dust produces a metallic glitter sparkle. The sparkly grains are larger than the finer powders of the pearl and lustre dusts. You can mix it with Rejuvenator Fluid to make a sugarcraft paint or use it dry. It can be used on sugar flowers that require a sparkly finish to the petals.

Disco Dust (also know as Decorating Glitter)

Disco dust has the largest grains of all the dusts. The grains are about the size of pieces of glitter. Disco dust is not a subtle sparkle, it has a highly glittery finish. Be careful to look at labels on disco dusts and glitters to determine whether they are edible or classed as non-edble, non-toxic food contact glitters, in which case they should not be used directly on decorations intended to for consumption.

sugar craft dusts explained

Keep a look out for my guide to organising your petal dusts which will be coming to the blog very soon. I’m going to show you how to organise your dusts into categories so that you always have all the colours you need at hand, when creating your sugar flowers. You can sign up to our newsletter here be the first to hear when new posts go live. Also you can check out my wax flower tutorial here, to see some petal dusts in action.

Christmas Cake Idea- A Birdcage Cake Tutorial

December 18, 2019      Leave a Comment

In this tutorial I will be showing you how to make this birdcage Christmas cake, with a cute little robin, poinsettia flowers and Christmas roses. It is a really lovely Christmas cake idea, which is simple yet really effective. It would look beautiful as part of a Christmas celebration or even a Christmas wedding.

Christmas Cake Idea- A Birdcage Cake Tutorial
Christmas Cake Idea- A Birdcage Cake Tutorial
Christmas Cake Idea- A Birdcage Cake Tutorial

You will need

-A 6” round fruit cake
-6” semi sphere fruit cake
-8” iced cake drum
-Red, white, green and brown gum paste -Petunia cutter and veiner set (Petal craft) -Paintbrush
-Edible glue
-Small piping bag and nozzle
-Royal icing
-Circle cutter
-Holly plunge cutter and veiner
-Small blossom plunge cutter
-Foam flower former
-Beadmaker
-Sharp kinife
-Rose silicone mould
-gold edible paint
-gold dragees
-yellow nonpareils
-Rose leaf plunge cutter and veiner -Robin silicone mould
-Red orange and black edible food colouring dusts -gold sparkle edible shimmer dust

Preparation

Cover each of the cakes with marzipan and white sugarpaste. Stack the cakes on an 8” iced cake drum.

Birdcage Cake Tutorial
Roll out a thin sausage shape of gum paste and insert into the bead maker mould. Close the bead maker, pressing firmly.
Birdcage Cake Tutorial
Run a sharp knife along the edge of the bead maker, trimming any excess gum paste.
Birdcage Cake Tutorial
Open the bead maker and remove the string of beads from the mould.
Birdcage Cake Tutorial
Trim any excess gum paste from the edge of the beads using a circle cutter. Repeat to make several strings of beads.
Birdcage Cake Tutorial
Attach the beads to the cake, securing with royal icing. Arrange the beads to create 6 distinct sections of your bird cage cake.
Birdcage Cake Tutorial
Press a small piece of gum paste into the rose mould to create several roses.
Birdcage Cake Tutorial
Attach the roses to the cake along the join line with royal icing.
Birdcage Cake Tutorial
Create some additional strings of beads (steps 1-4) and attach to the cake above and below the roses to finish the edges of the rose border. Repeat this process to create a rose border along the bottom. of the cake.
Birdcage Cake Tutorial
To create the top handle of the bird cage, roll a ball of gum paste attaching beads to the bottom and roses to the sides.
Birdcage Cake Tutorial
Create a small loop with a string of beads and allow to dry before attaching on top to create the handle. Secure the handle to the top of the cake using royal icing.
Birdcage Cake Tutorial
Paint each of the beads and roses on the cake with edible gold paint.
Birdcage Cake Tutorial
To make the poinsettia flowers roll out some red gum paste and cut out 5 or 6 leaf shapes using the rose leaf cutter. Trim the edges of each of the leaves.
Birdcage Cake Tutorial
Arrange 5 or 6 petals together, joining in the centre and secure with edible glue.
Birdcage Cake Tutorial
Repeat step 12 to create another set of petals. This time pinching the bottom of each petal together.
Birdcage Cake Tutorial
Stick the pinched petals on top of the first set of petals with edible glue.
Birdcage Cake Tutorial
Allow to dry in the foam flower former and then pipe some royal icing into the centre of the poinsettia flower.
Birdcage Cake Tutorial
Place 3 gold dragees on the royal icing to create the centre of the poinsettia flower. Repeat steps 12-16 using white gum paste to create a white
poinsettia.
Birdcage Cake Tutorial
TocreatetheChristmasrose,roll out some white gum paste and use the petunia cutter to cut out several shapes.
Birdcage Cake Tutorial
Then cut out several small blossom shapes.
Birdcage Cake Tutorial
Place the petunia shape inside the petunia veiner with the blossom shape on top and press securely. Repeat with each of the cut outs and allow to dry in a flower former.
Birdcage Cake Tutorial
Paintsomeedibleglueintothe centre of the flowers.
Birdcage Cake Tutorial
Sprinkle some yellow nonpareils into the centre of each of the flowers.
Birdcage Cake Tutorial
Next roll out some green gum paste and use the plunger to cut out and vein come holly leaf shapes.
Birdcage Cake Tutorial
Arrange the poinsettia flowers and Christmas roses on the cake securing with royal icing.
Birdcage Cake Tutorial
Arrange the holly leaves between the flowers, filling any gaps.
Birdcage Cake Tutorial
Push some brown gum paste into the top section of the robin mould and some white gum paste into the bottom section.
Birdcage Cake Tutorial
Remove the gumpaste robin from the mould and paint the breast of the robin using a combination of red and yellow edible dusts.
Birdcage Cake Tutorial
Paint the beak and eye of the robin with black edible dust.
Birdcage Cake Tutorial
Place the robin amongst the flowers on the cake, securing with royal icing.
Birdcage Cake Tutorial
Finally, using a large paintbrush, brush some gold sparkle dust over the white icing of the cake to create a subtle shimmer.
Christmas Cake Idea- A Birdcage Cake Tutorial

I hope you enjoyed this Christmas Cake Idea- A Birdcage Cake Tutorial. Check out some more of our tutorials below.

P.S I love seeing the cakes that you’re making, so if you use one of my tutorials please tag @sugarruffles in your Instagram photos and stories so I can take a look! 

  • Page 1
  • Page 2
  • Next Page »

Primary Sidebar

  • Email
  • Facebook
  • Flickr
  • Instagram
  • Pinterest
  • Twitter

Hello! Welcome to Sugar Ruffles Blog!

Hello! Welcome to Sugar Ruffles Blog!

Join the Membership

Join the Membership

Sign up for our FREE sugar rose workshop

Sugar Flower Workshop

Find out more about our online course

Find out more about our online course

Download our FREE guide- How to mix the perfect shade of dusky pink

Download our FREE guide- How to mix the perfect shade of dusky pink

Download our FREE sugar flower tutorial bundle

Download our FREE Petal Dust Palette- Template and Guide

Download our FREE Petal Dust Palette- Template and Guide

Access all our FREE tutorials

Latest Pins

Archives

Recent Posts

  • Iridescent Anthurium Sugar Flower Tutorial
  • #MeetTheMaker
  • Sugar Flower Inspiration
  • Sugar Flower Making Essentials
  • Lovelace Rose Sugar Rose Workshop

Follow along with us on Instagram

Some lovely testimonials from my Sugar Rose Artist Some lovely testimonials from my Sugar Rose Artistry students! Enrolment for the course closes at the of this week and we get started on 8th February. If you'd like to join us and raise the level of artistry in your sugar roses you can find all the details in my profile. #lovetolearn #cakegoals #sugarflowers #sugarflowerart #sugarflowertutorial #sugarroseartistry #petaldust #studenttestimonial #sugarflower #sugarflowerclasses #learnflowers #flowers #flowerstagram
Scroll across to see some beautiful student work f Scroll across to see some beautiful student work from inside Sugar Rose Artistry! #sugarroseartistry #sugarflowers #sugarflowerclass #sugarroses #cakeclassesuk #cakecourse #learnsugarflowers #studentwork #cakedecorating #creativeclasses #proudteacher
Here are some of the sugar roses that you can lear Here are some of the sugar roses that you can learn how to make in 'Sugar Rose Artistry!'

 First you'll learn all the foundations of sugar rose making including how to make two different sizes of roses, calyx and leaves. Then you'll learn the foundations skills and techniques of petal dusting and complete your first colouring project- an ivory sugar rose. Next you’ll have the chance to practice and consolidate all these skills by taking on a new sugar rose project each week, until you have created all of the beautiful variations shown here! By this point you will have you will have mastered sugar rose making, colouring and dusting techniques and created you own unique style! 

Which rose would you most like to learn to make?

#sugarroseartistry #sugarroses #sugarflowercourses #sugarflowerclass #sugarflowers #vintage roses #petaldust #sugarroseartistry #cakedecorating #cakesofinstagram #howto #caketutorial #flowersarebeautiful
Enrolment is now OPEN for Sugar Rose Artistry- A m Enrolment is now OPEN for Sugar Rose Artistry- A masterclass in creating and colouring sugar roses & the art of pricing sugar flowers.  You can find all the details at the link in my profile. #sugarflowercourses #sugarroses #sugarflowers #sugarroseartistry #sugarflowerclass #cakeclasses #cakesofinstagram #cakedecorating #cakedesign #petaldust #vintagesugarroses #cakeclassesuk #sugarart
Thank you so much to everyone who came to the firs Thank you so much to everyone who came to the first of our Lovelace sugar rose workshops today and for all your lovely comments. Here are just a few of them! If you missed todays session, you can still join us for tomorrow's workshop or catch the limited time replay. #sugarruffles #sugarflowercourses #sugarflowerclass #sugarflowers #sugarrose #sugarroses #petaldust #cakedecorating #cakedesign #thankyou #lovelace #sugarroseartistry
A sneak peek at tomorrow’s Lovelace sugar rose w A sneak peek at tomorrow’s Lovelace sugar rose workshop #sugarflowers #sugarroses #sugarflowercourses #sugarflowerclass #petaldust #roses #cakedesign #cakeart #sugarroseartistry #cakevideo #flowersofinstagram
"Flowers always make people better, happier, and m "Flowers always make people better, happier, and more helpful; they are sunshine, food and medicine for the soul". Luther Burbank

I'm really looking forward to sharing my petal dusting techniques with you in my FREE sugar rose workshop next week. You can find all the details in my profile/ stories. I’d love for you to join us! #sugarflowers #sugarrose #petaldust #sugarflowercourses #sugarflowerclass #sugarroseartistry #pink #pinkcake #flowersarebeautiful #flowerarehappiness #flowerpaste #duskypink #rosesarepink
Swipe across to see some of the amazing feedback f Swipe across to see some of the amazing feedback from our last sugar flower workshops! You still have chance to join us for our free Lovelace rose workshops next week. I’d love to see you there! You can find all the details in my profile and stories #sugarflowercourses #sugarflowers #sugarrose #cakeclasses #cakedecorating #learntobake #sugarruffles #cakesofinstagram #flowerstagram #cakes
More petal dusting transformations! This time I ha More petal dusting transformations! This time I have used petal dusts to transform this pale terracotta rose into a cappuccino rose. I'm really looking forward to sharing some of my petal dusting techniques next week. Thank you so much to everyone who's been in touch to let me know you're coming. Not long to go now! #sugarroses #cappucinorose #petaldust #sugarflowercourses #sugarart #flowersmakemehappy #sugarroseartistry #sugarruffles #creativity #sugarcraft
I love how using petal dusts can completely transf I love how using petal dusts can completely transform sugar roses! I'm looking forward to sharing my tips and techniques next week. #sugarroses #sugarruffles #lovelace #sugarflowers #sugarflowercourses #sugarflowerclass #petaldust #cakeclassesuk #sugarroseartistry #cake #wedding #weddingcake #instacake #instaflowers

Copyright © 2021 · Sugar Ruffles · Wordpress Theme by TinselPop