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