Sugar paste fall leaves: tutorial

I’m going to explain how to make sugar paste fall leaves. Would you like to make some maple leaves?

In this tutorial you will learn sugar paste maple leaves for decorating your cakes and cookies. Autumn is finally here after a long, hot summer in Spain. I was really looking forward to the fall season and his chilly days. During this season, many leaves change colors and the trees become a color palette. Leaves everywhere: on the ground, decorating your front door, in our parks, at school… They fill our home and dress it with warm colors.

Maple Fall Leaves Cutters

In order to make sugar paste fall leaves you won’t need a lot of materials, but it is essential to use high quality cutters and enervators? I used the ones by Robert Haynes, a great master of floral art.

Materials for sugar paste leaves making

50gr Renshaw Petal Paste
ProGel Food Coloring: Cream
Rainbow Dust Coloring: Sunset Yellow, Orange, Rust, Milk Chocolate, Chilli Red and Autumn Green.
Edible glue
Maizena cornflour
Small rolling pin
Small floral pliers
Floral foam pad
Ball tool (big)
Dresden tool
Polyester wadding fabric
Maple leaf cutter and veiner set (by Robert Haynes)
26 gauge white wire

How to make sugar paste fall leaves

1. Stretch some flower paste until it is 2mm thick and cut the leaves. Remember to keep them in a zip bag and to eliminate any residual air in order to prevent the paste from drying.

2. Grab one of the cut flowers and stretch the upper half. Thereby, you’ll obtain a more realistic finish. The centre of the leaf will be thick whilst the edges will be thin and delicate.

3. Place the cutter in the same position and cut again, making sure the excess of the paste is in the upper part. The paste dries really fast, so I suggest finishing the flowers one by one, keeping the rest of them in the zip bag in the meantime.

4. Cut 5cm of the white wire, moisten it with edible glue, remove excess moisture and stick it in the centre of the leaf. Place your fingers as shown in picture (you’ll hold the leaf better and you’ll feel the wire coming in).

5. Now we need to make the edges of the leaf thinner. Put the sugar paste on a floral foam pad and press the edges with a ball tool. The thinner, the better.

6. Dust the leaf before putting it on the enervator. Put it in the proper position. Close the enervator and press. Be careful not to press too much on the centre, since the wire could get out.

7. Remove the enervator and pull out the leaf. Don’t pull from the tip since the leaf could warp or even worse, break.

8. Let the leaf rest on some wadding (you can also use cushion filling), that way you’ll get realistic, irregular shapes. Be careful not to press excessively. If you press too much, the leaf will get an exaggerated shape and the wire may stick out from behind.

9. You can pinch slightly the tips of the leaf in order to give it some movement and naturalness.

10. Repeat the process with each leaf. If you want to give them a more realistic finish, simply break them a little bit with a Dresden tool to give them some imperfections.

11. Do not do this on every leaf, just one or two: we don’t want to get a decrepit cake.

12. Make all the leaves you want and put them on the wadding. I don’t know how long it will take for the leaves to dry, it depends on the level of humidity and the climate in your area.

How to paint sugar paste fall leaves

1. Once the leaves are dry, paint them with Rainbow Dust colours. Remember that fall leaves have many different hues. In this way, you can mix different colours in the same leaf.

2. I always start with the greens. Apply green colour with some yellow and then shade some parts red. Be careful: if you apply red on green, you’ll get brown.

3. You have a whole world of possibilities. The more colour hues you get, the more beautiful your cake is going to be.

4. Fold the point of the wire in order to make it more voluminous.

5. Cover all the wires with brown floral tape. The floral tape releases some glue when you stretch it, so keep it always tensed while rolling.

A tip to get realistic sugar fall leaves

One of the greatest tips to get realistic sugar leaves is to give them a steam bath. Humidity, which usually is one of the biggest enemies of creative pastry, is our great ally in this case. A steam bath will help with getting the colours fully integrated. You need to steam the leaves front and back and let them dry for a few seconds.

How to make sugar fall leaves: video tutorial

How to use sugar leaves to decorate your cakes

You can use these sugar fall leaves to decorate countless of cakes, even cookies or cupcakes. I especially made the cake below for this tutorial. It is a simple design decorated with autumnal maple leaves, main characters of this cake. As you can see, I’ve used the same colours on the rhombuses. Notice that I’ve placed the leaves in accordance with the colours of the nearest rhombuses.

WOULD YOU LIKE TO LEARN HOW TO MAKE SUGAR FLOWERS?

If you’re looking for a tutorial on how to make sugar flowers, you can check my tutorial on how to make a sugar paste orchid step by step. Orchids will give a really sophisticated touch to your cakes.

HAVE YOU EVER MADE SUGAR LEAVES FOR DECORATING YOUR CAKES?

I hope you liked this tutorial and I expect it helps you all year long, but especially in autumn. You can send me your creations by Facebook or Instagram, and if you have any doubts, you know you can leave a comment and I’ll write you back!

Marc Suárez