Ranunculus Sugar Flowers

Funny how things change. 
I started making ranunculus flowers a few years ago...they have always been a favorite, and I still LOVE the fresh look of the white flowers with the gorgeous green centers. They continue to be a very popular flower for both weddings and cakes, but I've found my flowers have changed over the past few years - especially having spent so much time studying and practicing them, and now teaching them to students!

Here are a few photos of flowers and buds I made several years ago...these photos now make me cringe thinking about how heavy, bulky and poorly shaped my flowers were at the time (so sad!). And it took SOOOO much time just to create a single flower! But I was so excited to try them, and very quickly fell in love:

And I started using them in cake designs - this is still a favorite from years ago:

I wasn't sure about what I was doing at all, but it was certainly fun to experiment..and with time my flowers improved and I figured out the techniques to shape and apply my petals to get a desired look and shape. They were still very stylized and a bit more whimsical than I wanted...but super cute and much more user-friendly:

Then things started to change a bit again, as they always do...and my style, taste and techniques started to become more refined, and I found the look of my flowers and buds evolving into softer and a bit more realistic versions:

Including this little peach number that took a really long time because I was experimenting with veining techniques. A money-maker this was not! That's the trick with a lot of sugar flowers, but ranunculus flowers for sure...you have to be very mindful when making them for your cakes...they can quickly become uber time consuming! Plan ahead, plan ahead, plan ahead...and charge accordingly for your precious time!

So here's where I am today...I've played with adding wired petals to make the flower look more open and delicate. This is a great flower to use on it's own on a mini-cake...a real statement and definitely one of my favorites:

And I've come up with techniques and a formula to make a "standard" flower to which petals can be added or removed depending on the size flower I want to create. The ranunculus can be a bit deceiving in its simplicity...so for me, a formula is necessary for making a lot of flowers and it's really helpful for teaching classes. They're certainly not the most realistic versions in the industry, but they definitely fit my current style and the look I'm trying to achieve for Petalsweet:

And that chocolate cake design? It needed a little updating too:

I'm curious what things will look like in another few years...for me, the ever-evolving process is one of my favorite parts of making sugar flowers! They don't need to be perfect...but just a true reflection of my style and vision. 

How about you...do you like ranunculus flowers? Do you make them for your cakes? 

And most importantly...do you want to learn how to make them? If so, what's the best way for you to learn sugar flowers?

As always...thank you for stopping by! x

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Copyright © 2012 by Jacqueline Butler of Petalsweet Cakes. Content of this blog (including text, cake and sugar flower designs, photographs, videos and layout) is the property of Jacqueline Butler - please respect copyright laws. If you want to link to my blog, or post any of my photos, please contact me - it would be great to have the opportunity to connect with you. Thank you!