Fondant Tulips and Chocolate Bowls

I'm on a mission to create fondant tulips! I'm making a birthday cake for a woman who loves tulips. I had some fondant, toothpicks, and my hands. Off to work! These will be painted with a mixture of edible color dust and clear vanilla extract. I'll wait for them to harden.

The start of my tulip. Pretty easy-- I just rolled out the fondant into a ball and kinda squished one side to make it a cone shape.

I used a pair of scissors to cut twice in the top, making four little petal tops. I then used my toothpick to indent down the side of the cuts to make it look like the petals coming together. I stuck a toothpick in the bottom and hung them on a cooling rack, as I will want to poke these in my birthday cake when the time is right. I suppose you could use wire too.

This is one of my more open tulips. I've searched for a few tutorials on fondant/gumpaste tulips and found one, but you seem to need specific tools. I'll give it a whirl later with things I have around the house--maybe it'll turn out just as great?! Here's the link to the other fondant tulip tutorial.

I've been getting more and more excited about working with fondant. It's like edible playdoh. I searched sugar art and caramel bubbles at work tonight. Ran into a pastry competition that occurs in France and was inspired by all the sugar art and fine attention to detail.

Here are the tulips being painted. I had a blast painting them!!!

The finished cake!! I think it is lovely. I'd totally do this cake again and make the fondant tulips.

Chocolate Bowls

(Never heard of caramel or sugar bubbles?) They remind me of my mom's edible craft project she taught me and my sister years ago. Blow up small balloons. Melt almond bark (or chocolate) and dip the balloon into the warm runny chocolate. Set them on wax paper to harden, and then pop the balloon! There you have a hardened chocolate bowl, perfect for ice cream or a scoop of strawberries. While the chocolate is still warm, however, why not dip it then in crushed up nuts or cookies? You could really have fun decorating these bowls for any occasion!

All that attention to detail and perfection in pastries made me realize that my country bumpkin way of cooking really is out of the norm. It's okay though! As I've said, I use what I have to create whatever I want. It works for me! Maybe someday this girl will break down and buy a fondant smoother or a set of tools specifically fashioned for use in making fondant tulips.