Average Reviews:
(More customer reviews)My partner and I have been exploring cake sculpting and working with gum paste rose to the top as a great, flexible material in which to sculpt things that would dry hard. We picked up the Wilton Flower Making Set and happily poured through the contents, including all the flower cutters, the instruction book and tools. To break things down for this review, we'll explore each component.
The cutters - 5 stars! These cutters are sturdy, yet cut fondant and gum paste very well into the desired shapes. We were then easily able to form various petals into their shapes and mold fabulous roses, just about right off the bat! We've also used the leaf cutters when we recently made a fantastic Green Man cake. We were able to cut the leaves, shape in the texture and veins and paint them easily and quickly (after we practiced a few, of course) thanks to these cutters.
The tools - 1 star, if that. Included in our set was a small wooden dowel for rolling out fondant and gum paste and two wooden tools for shaping. These wooden tools were awful! They were unsanded and rough, so that even after greasing up with solid white shortening, they still dragged and tore the material we were forming. We picked up a cheap set of clay sculpting tools made of plastic that were MUCH more effective and easy to use.
The book - 4 stars. The book is a great start and will get you into beginner style flowers. Some of the pictures though showed flowers that we would never put on a cake. I know we do have perfectionist tendencies but when we sculpt flowers, we want to take people's breath away. The awesomeness of this book DID come, however, with the illustrations that showed what cutters were needed for what flowers. That makes this book invaluable. So, if you want more realistic, detailed flowers, check out various youtube tutorials out there and you'll get a much better idea of each step than the book gives.
The accessories - 5 stars. Also included is a protector board, a couple spongy squares and an interlocking stand thing. The protector board is wonderful for keeping gum paste from drying out too fast as you cut out multiple pieces. Say you're making a rose. Roll out a small bit of gum paste and cut out the number of petals you'll need for any given row you're working on, slip the pieces in the protector and they'll stay softer, longer and be easier to shape. Sure, you can use plastic wrap or a overturned cup to similar effect, however, this protector is simple and handy. The spongy squares allow you to do rippling effects and texture that allow petals to 'cup' as they do in real life, and make it dreamily easy to piece together into the final flower. Now, the stand thing? We've yet to figure out what that does. It's a lousy book holder, not stable enough to hang finished flowers from, so if anyone has found its purpose, please let us know!
All together, this is an excellent kit and well worth the money, even with the lousy tools, which we do plan on sanding to see if they'll smooth out and be usable for SOMETHING, however, when you spend money on a kit to help you make something, my feeling is the components should already be usable, out of the bag. The rest of the kit far outweighs the disappointment in the wooden tools, however, and made us thankful that the little plastic clay tools we picked up work SO well with the fondant and gum paste flowers and leaves we've made already.
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Wilton 1907-117 Floral Collection 32-Piece Gum Paste Flower-Making SetEasily create delicately beautiful gum paste flowers and leaves with this 32-piece flower-making set. Equipped with a full-color instruction book loaded with arranging ideas and step-by-step instructions, the set also provides one leaf mold, three wood modeling tools, a protector flap, and two foam squares for modeling. Plus, it includes 24 plastic cutters in the following floral shapes: Wild Rose, Baby's Breath, Forget-Me-Not, Apple Blossom, Pansy, Small Daisy, Large Daisy, Calyx, Orchid Throat, Stephanotis, Small Carnation, Large Carnation, Rose Petals (three sizes), Daffodil Petal, Daffodil Cup, Lily, Tulip Petal, Small Rose Leaf, Large Rose Leaf, Holly Leaf, Ivy Leaf, and Tulip Leaf. A charming addition to cakes, tarts, pastries, and other baked goods, the lifelike embellishments bring a touch of spring's grace to special occasions and everyday moments alike. The gum paste flower-making set measures approximately 13-2/5 by 8-8/9 by 1-1/2 inches.
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