Fondant Sunflowers

Fondant Sunflowers are beautiful and simple to make. You can use them decorate desserts, cakes and even cookies.

STEP-BY-STEP FONDANT SUNFLOWERS

Sunflowers are so bright and cheerful. They possess this silent power. Whenever I see sunflowers my mood shifts up a gear.

Tools to Make Fondant Sunflowers

• Silicone mat
• Silicone rolling pin
• Flower formers
• Fondant cutter or cookie cutter – I used a daisy/gerbera/sunflower plunger cutter
• Concentrated Gel Food Colors: yellow, orange, brown
• Tylose Powder – I knead it into fondant to speed up drying of fondant decorations

• Fondant tools
• Food only paint brushes
• Color dust/Petal Dust: orange and brown – I used cappuccino hybrid petal dust by Roxy & Rich
• Gold luster dust

Prepare Fondant

First, you need to purchase or make fondant. I used homemade marshmallow fondant but you can use a store-bought fondant, too. If you’d like to make marshmallow fondant, you can use my small batch marshmallow fondant recipe. It’s easy to make and doesn’t make a ton, just enough to make pretty fondant decorations.

Color fondant with yellow gel color. I also like to knead in minuscule amount of orange gel color to mute the bright lemon yellow color (step 1). Marshmallow fondant takes a little longer to dry. To aid in faster drying, I knead tylose powder into fondant. If you’d like fondant flowers to dry with a soft bite, use about 1/2 teaspoon of tylose powder per 1/2lb of marshmallow fondant.

• Dust tylose powder onto a silicone mat.
• Knead it into fondant.
• If fondant appear little dry after adding tylose power, you can knead in a little of crisco.
• Wrap fondant with a food wrap.

Roll Out Fondant

• Dust silicone mat with corn starch or powdered sugar (step 1-2).
• Roll the fondant out to about 1/8-inch/3mm (steps 3-6).

Cut-Out Fondant Flowers

Immediately cut out fondant flowers with a plunger cutter, or other similar cutter you have (step 1-6).

How to Keep Fondant Cut-Outs from Drying Out Too Quickly

If you are making many of these, I’d suggest making them in batches. And then, when not working with fondant cut-outs, protect them from drying out.

Cover them with plastic to prevent fondant flowers from crusting and drying out. Trim the Ziploc bag so you can easily open it. And use it to hold fondant flowers while you are shaping fondant sunflowers.

Shape Fondant Flowers

• With a ball tool shape each petal. Gently push the ball tool down and move outwards, shaping the petal (steps 1-4).
• Create a crease in each petal with a long thin fondant tool (steps 5-6).
• Pinch each end of the petal into a point (steps 7-8).

Shaping Fondant Sunflowers Using Flower Formers

Lightly dust each flower former with corn starch. Place the bottom flower into the former (steps 1-2). Create a staggered arrangement of petals first (step 3), then carefully lift the top flower and brush the center of the bottom flower with a bit of water (step 4). Glue the top flower’s center onto the bottom flower’s center. Repeat with the 3rd flower (steps 5-6). Take a ball tool and gently shape the sunflower’s center (steps 7-8).

Apply Color Dust onto Fondant Flowers

Use the orange color dust/petal dust to shade the flower. Use a medium-size fluffy brush (steps 1-3). To get rid of excess dust I use an empty decorating bottle to blow flow of air onto the flower thus removing excess dust (steps 4-5). Use a touch of cappuccino/brown color/petal dust to shade the outside of the flower center. Go light with the brown (steps 6-8).

Shape Flower Centers

Now we can prepare flower centers and to make sunflowers’ centers color fondant with brown gel food coloring. To keep the centers uniform in size, I rolled the fondant into 1/8-inch/3mm thick. And then, with a small 1/2 inch round cutter, I cut out small rounds (step 2). Grease your hands with some Crisco or other vegetable fat. Shape each brown round cut-out into a ball (steps 4-6).

Create a characteristic sunflower center texture with a metal sieve. Gently push each brown fondant ball into the sieve, deep enough to texturize the flatten ball of fondant (steps 7-8).

Assemble Fondant Sunflowers

Glue brown center onto the yellow sunflower with a touch of water. Gently push it down, so it sticks to the yellow fondant (steps 1-4.)

Apply Gold Luster Dust

Create a lustrous design with gold luster dust. I used Gold Sparkle Dust by Sugarflair. Brush dry gold luster dust onto the brown fondant (steps 3). And briefly touch the petals to give them some shine (step 4-5).

How To Dry Out Fondant Flowers

Let the fondant sunflowers dry in the flower formers for several hours, best to let them dry overnight.

How To Store Fondant Flowers

Store fondant sunflowers in an airtight container, layered between paper towels and food wrap. Store fondant decorations away from direct sunlight and moisture. They will keep for up to 4 months.

• MORE EDIBLE SUGAR FLOWERS
• Royal Icing Daisy Flowers
• Lily of the Valley Meringue Cookies
• Royal Icing Pansy Flowers

To Make Fondant Sunflowers You Need

• Fondant – store bought (I like Satin Ice) or homemade Marshmallow Fondant (that’s what I used)
• Find all the tools in my Amazon Shop
• Tylose Powder (optional)
• Fondant Tools
• Silicone Mat
• Silicone Rolling Pin
• Sunflower/Daisy/Gerbera Plunger Cutter or other similar cutter
• Mesh sieve
• Gel Food Colors: lemon yellow, orange, brown
• Food Only Paint Brushes
• Petal/Color Dust: orange, brown
• Gold Luster Dust
• Flower formers