Sugar-paste flowers

When I first started making sugar-paste flowers, I simply went to my local cake-supply shop and bought a few sizes of dogwood cutters, which are the flower shapes I use on my popular chocolate Love Blossom cakes (page 31). 

For cutting the leaf shape out of sugar paste, use a small, sharp knife to create leaves that are irregular—and more true to nature. If you use a cutter, look for an elongated-leaf cutter or a rosebud-leaf cutter. These shapes are not so plump and squat and tend to harmonize nicely with most flowers. 

It s best to use up as much of the colored sugar paste as you make. Even stored in plastic wrap, sugar paste has a tendency to harden with time. If you make extra flowers or shapes, future decorating will be a cinch because you already have them on hand. 

Preheat the oven to l8o°F. Place the sugar-paste petals on paper egg cartons on a baking sheet, and bake for 1/2 hour. Turn the off oven and let the flowers cool inside the oven, up to I hour. Unfortunately, humidity seems to keep sugar flowers soft, so if you re working on a humid day, let the flowers dry out as long as possible in the oven and decorate the cake close to the serving time. 

Sugar-paste creations can keep for years, and storing them is easy. I recycle the plastic take-out food containers and line them with a paper towel or napkin. Place the flowers on top of the paper towel, and then cover the flowers with another layer of paper towel repeat, leave enough room so that when you put the top on the container, you do not crush the flowers. 

Ke ault s Pectoral Paste. Flowers of m ow, flowers of cudweed, flowers of coltsfoot, and flowers of red poppy, 1 ounco of each boil in a quart of water, strain, then add 30 ounces of gum-arabic, 20 ounces of white sugar, and 2 drachms tincture of tolu dissolve, strain, and evaporate to the proper consistence. 

Another method of ingesting khat is by chewing a paste made of khat leaves, water, and sugar or honey, sometimes flavored with herbs. A tea made from the flowers of the khat plant— flower of paradise in Yemen—is considered restorative. In addition, the leaves are sometimes added to plain tea, or smoked in combination with tobacco. Ethiopians often drink a juice extract made from khat leaves. 

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