Tuesday, March 23, 2010

Tuesdays at the Table - Flowers and Dirt

Today is a very rainy Tuesday. It is cold and wet; however, I am heartened by seeing my yard slowly go from brown to green. I haven't dared to think about my garden yet, I know we are still good for another snow storm or two, but at least it is now officially Spring. I am looking forward to my Garden Club meeting this week, as we will now have lots to share. As co-hostess of this month's meeting, I wanted to do something special and what better recipe for a garden club than flowers and dirt. So today I am participating at Tuesdays at the Table with our hostess Cole at All the Small Stuff to showcase how to make edible flowers.
A couple of weeks ago, I found a wonderful recipe for "dirt". It had been posted by Janet at Stuff I Think About for that week's entry at Tuesdays at the Table. Please click here to view. Her recipe went beyond crushed Oreo cookies and was sophisticated enough to serve at a garden theme luncheon and not just a kid's Halloween party with gummy worms. I wrote to her about how my edible flowers would compliment her dirt and she wrote back asking for directions. Here they are.

I remember helping my mother make these gumdrop roses when I was only 10. These were really popular on cakes in the 70's. They really are simple to make although a tad messy. But that is what makes them fun.

You start with a bag of gumdrops, I usually look for a bag with lots of red ones, a personal preference. For these roses I actually used jelly slices instead of gumdrops and thought they would work the same. They did; however, I had to roll them thinner to make them pliable and then they would stick to the table. Gumdrops are easier to manage, to cut, to roll out and to form the roses, so better to use gumdrops.


First I slice each piece into 3 sections (vertically).



Next I place each cut side down onto sugar to coat which helps keep the candy from sticking to the surface when being rolled out.

















After you have rolled out your pieces, you then begin to form your rose, the first piece tightly curled to form the center, then another slice on the outside to form a petal, followed by a third slice, slightly overlapping the other piece to form another petal. You can they play around with the petals to position them just right. It helps to keep dipping your fingers into sugar to keep the gumdrops from sticking to you. Each rose uses just one gumdrop cut into 3 pieces for the 3 petals.

Next I take 2 slices of a green gumdrop, rolled out, they form the leaves at the base of the rose.

Here is a picture of the finished project (Only 20 more to make!) They make beautiful cupcake toppers, especially on Red Velvet cupcakes and would be perfect on an Easter or Mother's Day cake.
Please be sure to join our hostess Cole at All the Small Stuff for the other participants today, at Tuesdays at the Table.

I am also linking up with Liz at Hoosier Homemade and the Spring Hop Party, showcasing some fun and tasty Easter goodies. Please be sure to Hop on over there. Click here.

Just another reminder of my 100 Followers Giveaway Celebration. Please click here to enter. The giveaway ends April 15th so there is time to enter. I have been adding to the prize (vintage papers, buttons, and linens), this is so much fun. I am looking forward to sharing all these goodies with the winner. Good luck to all who enter.
A few of my Giveaway Goodies.

Have a good day.
Sherrie






19 comments:

★Carol★ said...

Your gumdrop flowers are so pretty Sherrie! They look easy to make too. I wonder if you can put them on skewers and put them in the "dirt". That would be such a cute centerpiece. I have to go check out this new dirt recipe!

Cole said...

Those are beautiful flowers, Sherrie!! What a fantastic idea!

Thanks for sharing. :-)

Upstatemamma said...

Those are super cool flowers - what an awesome idea. I will definitely have to try that some time. I hope your daughter has success with our "burger" recipe. :)

Stella said...

Just in time to put on my Easter cake. Can't wait to give it a try. I think my granddaughter would like to make these too. Thanks for sharing.

Kristen said...

Made out of gumdrops, those are flowers that even my "manly" boys would love to get. Because I am completely inept when it comes to making frosting flowers, I think I may actually be able to make a pretty May Day cake now. Thanks for the tutorial!

Alea Milham said...

What a fun idea for a garden party! I am also a gardener, so i will be filing this brilliant idea away. Thanks for the link to the dirt; I was on vacation and missed it last week.

Sue said...

These are deceptively easy to make and they look so good! Thanks so much for the instructions!

Sue:)

Katie said...

What a great idea. They are so pretty!

Pamela Scott said...

those are really cute I will have to try them out, thanks

Sonshine said...

Those are really cute and a great idea, however, I don't think I have the patience to do them. :)

Thanks for stopping and "enjoying" my cheesecake cookie cups. :)

Sherry @ Lamp Unto My Feet said...

Those are georgeous! WOW!

Alison said...

Thanks for stopping by my blog yesterday!

I love these little flowers! They are soooo pretty! I'm going to share your blog post with my niece. She's taking culinary in high school and her favorite part of the class is the cake decorating portion. She'll love trying to make some of these!

Kate @ The Gaines Gang said...

I love gum drops and never thought to use them like that! Too cute! I also loved the "dirt" recipe. So many ways you could use that.

I too am happy to see the tulips out front and can't wait to get my garden in the ground!

Megan said...

Love your edible flowers. They would look so cute on a pretty spring cake or cupcakes! Thanks for the recipe.

HoosierHomemade said...

Those are stunning! What a great idea to use a gum drop!
Thanks so much for joining in the fun at the Spring Hop!
~Liz@HoosierHomemade

mub said...

I've heard of these but never seen them before! What a fun idea =)

❀~Myrna~❀ said...

These are very cool! Thanks so much for sharing !
Blessings,
~Myrna

Janet said...

Those are so cute! Thanks for sharing, and thanks for linking to my recipe. It is seriously delicious, and these flowers would be a more elegant addition than worms. lol

Diane Schmidt said...

They are just beautiful!