Last week we reached out to New Hampshire cake designer, Erin Gardner at Wild Orchid Baking Co. to get an inside look at sugar work, and what goes into the process. She talked to us about how she initially picked up the craft and how she has furthered her skill from there. I don’t think we need to say amazing – I mean, just look at her work? Check out what Erin has to share:
right image by: Drinker Images
PTW: How did you get started in the business?
Erin: I started doing sugar work about 8 years ago, but very very basic work, when I was working as a restaurant Pastry Chef. It’s not a skill that gets called upon frequently when you’re working in restaurants. But on occasion I would be asked to do a cake or create a special dessert with some pulled or sculpted sugar touches. Initially all of that sugar work was self taught and learned by asking pastry chef friends of mine to show me what they knew. I would do research online and play around with the materials on my own. In 2007 I had the opportunity to take a class in sugar flower work with Ron Ben Israel at the French Culinary Institute in NYC. It was there that I really learned proper technique and fell in love with the whole process. Now when I work on sugar pieces I’ve combined what I learned there with the techniques that I’ve figured out on my own. I still love to experiment with the materials and see what new things I can come up with.
PTW: How time consuming is the process? Do some flowers require more time and dedication than others? Can you describe to us some of the process and what goes into the creation of a sugar flower?
Erin: Making sugar flowers is a time consuming process that requires pre-planning and organization. Each flower is different and needs to be approached in it’s own way. Some flowers are made by creating a center, allowing it to dry, and then adding petals directly to the center. Roses are made in this manner. Each layer of petals has to dry before the next layer can be added. So if you know you need a very large, open rose, you have to start the rose a few days to weeks ahead of time to allow for the drying process. Other flowers, like tulips or orchids, are made in pieces and then wired together. Tulip petals are formed on the ends of wires and allowed to dry. Then the wires are taped together using floral tape. Some tiny flowers, like stephanotis, are made all in one piece and then shaped onto a floral wire. After sculpting the centers & petals, I’ll then go back with food coloring dusts and tint the flowers whatever color they need to be. I always try to achieve depth in coloring, like a real flower, by combining different tints of the same color and shading petals with lighter and darker areas.
PTW: When creating your sugar flowers, do you like to reference other sugar flowers or the actual flowers themselves?
Erin: When creating flowers I like to look to the flowers themselves, not other sugar versions of flowers. One of the very first things we did in the sugar flower class was to disassemble a real rose to see how and why it all fit together. When I was first learning how to do sugar flowers I would go to flower shops and pick up a few blossoms to take apart and study. Botanical books and catalogs are also great resources for learning about all the different varieties of each flower.
PTW: What is the pricing for sugar flowers based on?
Erin: Pricing for sugar flowers is really based on time. Like I mentioned earlier, roses can take many days to finish. Granted it’s a few moments each day, but the time, space and labor all has to be planned and accounted for. Every pastry chef charges for their time differently. I break the cost of sugar flowers down to each flower and how long it takes me to create. Roses, ranunculus and peonies are the most expensive sugar flowers because of the number of petals and time they take. I always include a little background greenery in my pricing because I feel it really adds to the realism of the flower and creates a more lush looking arrangement.
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