Georgia O'Keeffe - Inspired Painted Floral Cake

Georgia O'Keeffe's free, flowy floral painting in daring colors inspired me to create this cake.

Step 1: Baking and Frosting the Cake

Bake your favorite cake and let it cool off.

Make a dent in the middle.

Frost the cake with buttercream or your favorite frosting. Leave it rough around the middle to allow the flower to flow naturally.

Step 2: Coloring the Gum-Paste

Stack 2-part orange and 1-part yellow gum paste.

Stretch and twist together to allow them to make irregular stripes. Knead powdered sugar into the gum paste to achieve the right consistency for sculpting. This will make it taste better, too.

Step 3: Shaping and Assembling the Flower

Divide into 5 - 6 equal parts.

Flatten each into a petal shape. Make vein patterns with a rounded needle tool by pressing the petal gently into a sponge.

Pose the petals loosely and flowy on the cake. Use scissors to cut and fingers to shape the details in the middle and assemble using a dab of water.

Step 4: Painting the Flower

Paint parts of the flower with food coloring gels and a paintbrush or your choice, deeper parts in darker red and orange, shallower in lighter orange and yellow.
Leave some parts unpainted.

Step 5: Decorating the Background

Pipe buttercream in a fine, endless curves as a background and a bigger "string of pearls" on the bottom using a simple piece of wax or parchment-paper cone.