Wired Gumpaste Gerbera Daisy | Realistic Sugar Flower Tutorial
Chef Alan TetreaultIn this tutorial: What You'll Need · Coloring with Petal Dust · Cutting the Petals · Assembling the Layers · Wiring the Flower · Adding the Center
Gerbera daisies look complicated, but Chef Alan Tetreault of Global Sugar Art has a simplified method that takes most of the frustration out of the process. Instead of traditional assembly, he layers three sizes of pre-cut petals in a forming cup, pierces a hole while they're still soft, and wires the flower after it dries. The result is a sturdy, realistic daisy that's much easier to handle than the traditional method.
What You'll Need
- Gum paste — must be firm (not softened with gel food coloring)
- Petal dust — fuchsia, corn yellow, and moss green (or your chosen colors)
- White shortening (Crisco) — a small amount for mixing with petal dust
- Cornstarch puff — for dusting cutters
- Cutters (choose one or both):
- Gem Multi-Daisy set (6 sizes, narrower petals, more detail)
- PME Gerbera Daisy plunger cutters (4 sizes, wider petals, embossed design)
- Gem Daisy center molds — for creating the textured center
- Gem Tool #12 — for veining and cupping petals
- Cel board (firm side) and cel pad (soft side)
- Pasta machine (optional but recommended for uniform thickness)
- Wilton forming cups — large size
- Water brush or small artist brush
- Needle tool or scriber
- Small pieces of craft foam — for lifting petals while drying
- 18-gauge floral wire
- Tweezers
- Round brush — for applying petal dust
Coloring the Paste with Petal Dust (Not Gel)
Here's Chef Alan's trick for getting deep color without softening the paste:
- Put a small amount of white shortening on your work surface.
- Dump some petal dust onto the shortening.
- Mix them together into a paste.
- Knead this colored paste into your gum paste.
Why this works: Gel food coloring adds moisture, which softens the paste and causes it to stick in cutters. Petal dust actually dries the paste, but the shortening offsets that drying effect. You get deep color without changing the consistency.
💡 General gum paste tip: Before making any flowers, knead about ⅛ to ¼ teaspoon of shortening into your paste. It makes rolling easier and lets you thin petal edges without tearing.
Cutting the Petals
↪ Using Gem cutters (the detailed ones)
These work in reverse — instead of pressing the cutter onto the paste:
- Dust the cutter with the cornstarch puff, then tap out the excess so no cavities are filled.
- Place the cutter face-up on the roller pad (the pad with holes designed for these cutters).
- Lay your rolled-out paste on top of the cutter.
- Roll over the back with a rolling pin, pressing from the center outward.
- Lift the paste and use a needle tool to pop the cut piece out.
↪ Using PME plunger cutters
- Roll paste thin on a lightly cornstarched board — make sure it slides freely.
- Press the cutter down and twist in a circular motion for a clean cut.
- Push the plunger down before lifting — this embosses the design.
- Pop the piece out.
↪ Why the paste sticks (troubleshooting)
If your cut pieces won't release from the cutter, check these four things:
- Didn't dust with cornstarch — always dust Gem cutters first
- Using fondant instead of gum paste — fondant is too soft
- Paste colored with gel/liquid — makes it sticky (use petal dust instead)
- Rolled too thick — use a pasta machine to get uniform, thin sheets (Chef Alan goes down to #6 on an Atlas machine)
Assembling the Layers
Cut three sizes of daisy — large, medium, and small.
↪ Veining and cupping
Use the Gem Tool #12 on the firm side of a cel pad. Roll from left to right across each petal to add subtle veining and a slight cup.
↪ Coloring before assembly
Paint the petal dust onto each layer before assembling — this is much easier and safer than coloring a dried, fragile flower.
↪ Layer them in a forming cup
- Place the largest layer in a Wilton forming cup, centered.
- Wet the center with water.
- Place the medium layer on top, rotating so the petals crisscross (not stacked directly on top of each other).
- Add more water, then the smallest layer.
- Pierce a hole through the center of all three layers with a needle tool — this is where the wire goes later.
↪ Lift the petals
Use tweezers to tuck tiny pieces of craft foam between petals (every 3–4 petals, between the top two layers). This lifts the petals and gives the flower a realistic, three-dimensional look. Remove the foam pieces after the flower dries.
Wiring the Flower
After the flower is fully dry:
- Take a piece of 18-gauge wire and bend the end over once, then bend the hook over again to create a flat surface with a small hook.
- Add a little water to the bottom of the daisy.
- Thread the wire up through the hole you pierced earlier.
- The hook catches inside the flower and holds everything together.
↪ For unwired flowers
Skip the wire entirely — just add the center directly and place the flower on the cake. If you want the flower to sit against the side of a cake, dry it propped against a dummy or a round surface so it sets in the right curve.
Adding the Center
- Take a small piece of yellow paste and press it into one of the Gem Daisy center molds.
- Push in from the back with a needle tool and pop it out.
- Dust with a little moss green petal dust for a natural look.
- Attach to the center of the flower with a dab of water.
↪ For the innermost petals
Cut one more layer using the smallest cutter and paint it with moss green petal dust, then a layer of yellow. Place this under the center piece for that natural look of new petals emerging from the middle of the flower.
Finishing
- Add a ball of paste to the back of the flower around the wire to secure it. Pinch it to the wire so the flower can sit right-side up without hanging.
- For a traditional calyx, use scissors to snip the paste ball — but Chef Alan notes that most of the time, nobody sees the back of a sugar flower on a cake, so don't spend too much time on it.
This tutorial is part of Global Sugar Art's library of free cake decorating videos by Chef Alan Tetreault. Browse all tutorials →
