How to take care of your sugar flowers
Gumpaste flowers have an extremely long shelf life, due to their sugar content and low moisture. As long as the flowers are taken care of properly, they’ll last for years! Keep the flowers out of direct sunlight (it can fade the colors) as well as extreme heat/cold, and especially out of humidity. Some refrigerators are very humid and can cause the flowers to melt, so I recommend placing the flowers on your cake before serving. If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to contact me. Each flower arrives in a box suitable for storage and comes with a care guide.
Removing Sugar Flowers from your shipping box
Carefully remove your sugar flowers from the packaging.
Bend the flexible floral wire stem and lift the sugar flower out of the foam.
Gently open up the petals for flowers that have individually wired petals (such as open roses).
If you are not using your flowers immediately, the box they arrived in is the perfect place to store your flowers
Storing Sugar Flowers for Maximized Shelf Life
Always store sugar flowers in a cool, dry, dark place. Moisture, humidity, and sunlight can damage flowers and cause them to melt or the colors to fade.
If refrigerating your cake, keep in mind that the moisture of your refrigerator can affect the flowers. If you have a high humidity refrigerator, consider placing the flowers on the cake right before serving, or you can store your cake inside a sealed cardboard box to reduce condensation and humidity damage.
You can also place desiccant packets* in the storage box as well.
Prefer to watch?
This quick youtube video walks you through how to take care of your sugar flowers when they’re damaged!
Troubleshooting
If a petal breaks on your flower, you can repair it with a bit of royal icing or edible glue*, leaving it to set for a few hours or overnight. For some flowers, it is possible to remove a broken petal to hide the damage. For flowers that are damaged during shipping, please contact Kelsie Cakes with photos of the damage to begin the process of getting new flowers to you!
Inserting sugar flowers into the cake
The easiest way to insert a sugar flower into your cake is to cut a plastic drinking straw slightly shorter than the height of your cake, then insert the straw into your cake where you want the flower to go. Then place the flexible floral wire right into the straw. This provides a clean space for holding your flower and makes removing the flowers easier. Remove sugar flowers and straws before serving the cake.
I’ve started using smoothie straws and they’re so much easier to use! I like these clear ones*
Watch this video tutorial of how I do it!
Non-edible Parts
Sugar flowers contain nontoxic, inedible materials such as wires and plastic stamens. The gumpaste contains egg whites. They are for decorative purposes and not for consumption. Please remove sugar flowers prior to serving the cake. After the cake is served, the sugar flowers can be stored as a keepsake. Carefully wipe off any icing that is on the petals and store in an airtight container such as these acrylic boxes*
See? It’s not so difficult to take care of your Sugar Flowers after all!
*Quick note about the links: some of the links are affiliate links. I may make a small commission when you click on the links & buy something but it won’t cost you anything and I will only recommend products I love to use!
