The Art of Cake Decorating by Hildegard Schulte, published by Schulte School of Cake Decorating and Candy Making in 1958, is a vintage book that recently became available to the NYC Cake Decorating Meetup thanks to Diane Shavkin an accomplished cake designer, cake show judge, and vendor. Although 50 years old, this book has a lot of timely information about color.
Ms. Schulte reminds all cake decorators to study the coloring of real flowers, leaves, and stems.
(In fact, top sugarcrafters often purchase the live flower to study when making a gumpaste replica). Ms. Schulte states that in nature, flowers, buds and leaves are not a flat color but several shades of the same color. She suggests that when making leaves for roses, add a little red color to the green to give a more natural appearance.
