Fondant canes #2: Veined flowers and leaves

Hi!
Today I want to show you a technique slightly different from what made in the lesson number 1, to obtain canes for a single veined petal of a flower, instead of the whole flower, and a veined leaf.

Once you master this technique, you will see how easy it will be to create mini cakes, placeholders and decorations to be used, for example, as I have done on these cupcakes!

Equipment

This technique takes a few tools:
•modelling fondant;
•a white mini cake (here the tutorial)
•a ruler;
•a precision knife;
•a small rolling pin with the guides for the control of the thickness;
•a set of 3 blades;
•a skewer or a toothpick;
•a cake tool with round tip

Note: You can use the normal fondant, as done in lesson number 1, but if your hands are hot or if the temperature is high, I would recommend the modelling fondant. And, if you want very hard decorations, you can use the gum paste.
In any case, it would be a good idea to rest your canes at least a couple of hours before you slice them, to avoid deformation during cutting, but if you don’t want to wait , you’ll do as I have done in the following steps: you have to fix the shape of each slice :)

Here we go!

Petals

Prepare a yellow cane and a brown rectangle that covers an half of the cane.

Slightly rolli with your hands to compact the cane.

Reduce the cane as explained in lesson number 1, ie crushing and contemporary extending the cane, without rolling too much, to avoid to deform the design.

Pinch the cane from the yellow part, so that the section looks like a drop; cut the cane into three equal sections with the aid of a ruler.

Place side by side the tree parts of the cane and reduce again, then pinch again the yellow side.

Cut the cane into 3 parts and put them side by side: the thin brown lines become the veins of the petal!

Pinch the cane on both sides so that the section has two tips. Slicing to obtain the petals.

If you project the work in advance, the best thing would be to rest the canes in a plastic container or a bag for food, to make it harder and easier to slicer. But, if you are in a hurry (like me :)), you have to manually arrange the shape of the slices.

Warning: unlike what was done in Lesson 1, these slices are not meant to be incorporated to the base, so they must not be too thin.

Prepare a disk of fondant for the base of the flower; paste the petals and put a brown ball on the center and pierce it with a toothpick.

Bow the petals to give the flower a natural form.

Veined leaves

Prepare a green cane and divide it into 4 equal vertical parts.

Prepare two small sheets, yellow and brown, very thin, and insert them between sections of the green cane.

Compact the cane and divide it into two parts with an oblique cut, as shown in the image.

At this point, take one of the two parts, and turn it upside down so that, combining the two sections, the brown lines form a spike.

At this point, if you want the veins are symmetric, it is important to properly combine the brown lines; alternatively, you can leave the veins asymmetrical, which are also typical of many leaves.

Reduce the canes a little and wrap it with a green sheet; reduce until you have the proper size section of the leaves for the flowers you just created.

Before slicing, as already done for the petal, pinch the canes on both sides.

Slice and arrange the shape of each leaf.

Prepare some small and simply leaves for the bud.

Slice a small green cane, without veins, and pinch the slices on both sides.

Form a bud with some flower petals and cover the base with the small leaves.

Take a piece of th leaf cane and reduce it again to obtain leaves of two different sizes.

Compose the mini cake as you like and, if you want, prepare some chocolate cupcakes, cover them with a bit of brown fondant and put the mini cake upon.

Here are some different cupcakes with remaining flowers and leaves.
And if you like, brush them with powder brown food color, which will give a more natural look to your works!