#tbt

Remember that time I made puffy little fruit roll-up flowers? You don’t? Well, here’s a refresher…

Three years ago I created this tutorial for www.weddingchicks.com. My #1 cake-tographer buddy, Mark Davidson, shot the tutorial. While we were shooting, I said, “This should totally be a book!” Little did I know, 2 years later Mark and I would be shooting my first book together, Great Cake Decorating. Puffy little fruit roll-up flowers and all. 🙂

Fruit Roll-Up Flowers

Image by Mark Davidson. As seen on WeddingChicks.com.

Image by Mark Davidson. As seen on WeddingChicks.com.

Supplies

• Fruit leather (I used store bought Fruit Roll-Ups for this project. If you wanted to match a specific color, then making your own might work better for you.)
• Round cookie cutters
• Small bowl of water
• Fine-tipped paint brush
• Floral wire (tooth picks or skewers would work as well)
• Piece of foam

Step 1:

Using a round cookie cutter, cut circles out of the fruit leather. The size of the cutter you use will determine how large of a puff you have at the end. For these puffs we used round cutters that were 1/2” to 2” in diameter.

Step 2:

Pick up a fruit leather round, and using your thumbs and forefingers, press the sides of the round together towards the center of the circle. You’ll end up with a shape resembling a ruffled “x”. Just be sure to press towards the center of the circle, so that you don’t close the “x” entirely. The open loops are what give the puff it’s shape.
Repeat with other circles. For a nice full puff we used 6 fruit leather rounds per puff. You can use more or less depending on how full you’d like the puff to be. To begin to form a puff, press 2 of the ruffled fruit leather rounds together at their points.

Step 3:

If the fruit leather has begun to dry out, brush on a small amount of water so that they stick together. Add more ruffles until you achieve the desired puff shape. Set formed puff onto a piece of styrofoam. Use floral wires or tooth picks to prop up the fruit leather puff into it’s desired shape. Allow to dry out over night. Using the wires or toothpicks helps keep the puff from drooping or loosing it’s shape as it dries.  You may need to allow puffs to dry out longer depending on the humidity.

Make The Small Circles

Add dots to your cake or cupcake design by cutting out small circles from the leftover fruit leather. Apply using royal icing or water, just like the puffs.
Apply to a finished cake using small dots of royal icing, or if applying to fondant just brush on a small amount of water where you’d like the puff to stick. Set one onto a freshly piped cupcake for an adorable topper.