Flagship · Advanced · $147

The flower that looks like it's on fire.

Curled-back petals, dramatic exposed stamens, a red-to-yellow gradient that reads as flame. The Gloriosa Lily is the showstopper of any summer or tropical wedding cake, and the most technically demanding flower in the catalog. Five advanced techniques, taught one at a time.

Skill Level

Advanced

Lessons

10 lessons

Length

~3.5 hours

$147

The Gloriosa Lily

What You'll Learn

Five advanced skills, one dramatic flower.

The Gloriosa is unlike any other flower in the catalog. The petals don’t lay flat. The stamens don’t tuck in. The colour can’t be subtle. Every technique in this course pushes past intermediate, and every one transfers to other tropical and architectural flowers.

The flame-shaped petal

Six narrow petals, each one curled back on itself. The cutting technique, the precise edge work, and the curve that gives a gloriosa its unmistakable silhouette. Different from any rose, peony, or anemone petal in the library.

The protruding stamens

The dramatic exposed centre with six long stamens extending outward, plus the curved style at the heart. Built piece by piece with fine cotton work and concentrated colouring on a pinhead-sized scale.

Advanced drying techniques

Gloriosa petals have to dry in a curled-back position, against gravity. The drying setup, the timing, and the support technique that holds the shape without distorting the colour. The skill that decides whether the flower works.

Concentrated colour without mud

Red-to-yellow gradient on a single petal, then deepened further at the tips. The concentrated dust technique that builds the flame effect in clean steps, without the colours blending into brown the way they will if you go in one pass.

Advanced taping & assembly

Bringing six curled petals, six stamens, and a curved style together without crushing any of it. The taping technique that holds the architecture, plus how the finished flower sits on a wedding cake without leaning.

Why The Gloriosa Lily

The flower that says destination wedding.

Open any tropical or destination wedding cake editorial, the cakes from Mexico, the Caribbean, Hawaii, Bali. The gloriosa is always there. It’s the flower that signals “this is not a garden wedding.” And cake artists who can make a believable gloriosa get booked for destinations they’d otherwise never reach.

It’s also the technical limit of what gum paste can do. Most flowers ask you to build them. The gloriosa asks you to build them against gravity, with colour that has to fight not to go muddy, and a centre that has no margin for error. Once you can make this one, every other architectural flower becomes possible.

“The Finespun courses have been life and career changing for me and my business.” · Emma Nixon · The Cake Girl

If you’ve mastered peonies and roses and want to stretch your work, this is the natural next step. Not another classic flower. A flower that requires you to learn new skills, and rewards you with a piece you can put in the centre of a portfolio.

The Curriculum

What you'll watch, module by module.

Five focused modules plus a full downloads vault. Approximately three and a half hours of paced video. Yours to keep, forever.

Module 01

Introduction & Materials

2 lessons

▷Welcome & what makes this flower different
▷Tools, wires & the drying setup

Module 02

The Centre & Stamens

2 lessons

▷Building the six long stamens with fine cotton
▷The curved style at the heart of the flower

Module 03

The Petals & Drying

3 lessons

▷Cutting & shaping the flame-shaped petal
▷The curled-back drying technique
▷Timing & troubleshooting drying issues

Module 04

Concentrated Dusting

3 lessons

▷The red-to-yellow gradient pass
▷Deepening the tips without going muddy
▷The final tipping for the flame effect

Module 05

Assembly & Arrangement

2 lessons

▷Advanced taping to fit petals, stamens & style
▷Pairing with anthurium, sweet peas & tropical greenery

Downloads

Tools, recipes, references

3 downloads

📄Tools & Materials List
📄Concentrated Colour Mixing Guide
📄Sugarpaste Recipe

when you're ready

Yours to keep, forever.

Pay once. Watch in your kitchen, on your phone, or with a friend. No subscription, no expiry, no platform that disappears.

The Gloriosa Lily

$147 one-time

Lifetime access. Watch as many times as you like.

✓Five focused modules
✓~3.5 hours of paced, in-depth video
✓The flame-shaped petal with its curled-back signature
✓The dramatic stamen build with curved style
✓Advanced drying techniques (against gravity)
✓The red-to-yellow gradient dusting in three clean passes
✓Advanced taping for an architectural flower
✓Tools list with drying-setup recommendations
✓30-day money-back guarantee

If the first lesson doesn’t land for you, email me within 30 days and I’ll refund you in full. No questions, no friction.

What Students Say

“All of these classes were very fun, informative and helpful in my further learning of sugar art. I use your sugar paste recipe consistently in any of my sugar work. I love how easy the recipe is, and how the paste is pliable enough to easily work with and dries wonderfully.”

Kathy Brown · Finespun Cakes Academy student

What You'll Need

Almost nothing.

You can start this course with what’s already in your kitchen and at most one quick trip to a craft shop.

The essentials

✦Gum paste, store-bought is fine to start
✦A ball tool (or a clean paintbrush handle)
✦A foam pad (or a folded kitchen towel)
✦Floral wire, 24-gauge for the petals
✦Florist tape, white or green

The nice-to-haves

✦A small rolling pin
✦A veining or Dresden tool
✦A pair of small needle-nose pliers
✦A set of petal dusts, any soft-pink and yellow
✦A small paintbrush for dusting

Once you’re enrolled, I’ll send you my full Sugar Flower Starter Kit PDF with affiliate links to everything I personally use. You don’t need it to start, but it makes the second flower easier.

Your Teacher

Hi, I'm Alexandria.

I founded Finespun Cakes in Toronto in 2015 and have spent the last decade designing wedding cakes and teaching sugar flowers to over 1,000 students worldwide.

I trained at Le Cordon Bleu, studied under Ron Ben-Israel in New York, won an American Cake Award, and was named one of Wedluxe’s Top 10 Wedding Cake Designers in Canada.

My courses are taught the way I wish someone had taught me, with every step shown, no gatekeeping, and no rushing through the parts that actually matter.

a smarter way

Why buy one course when you could have all of them?

The Gloriosa Lily is included in the Finespun Academy at $29/month, along with every other course, over 100 studio recipes, all seven studio tools, and live time with Alexandria every month.

After five months in the Academy, you’ve already gotten more than the price of this single course. Most members stay much longer.