I'm doing a wedding cake in three weeks that will involve a number of roses. I'd like to get started on these so I have them out of the way before I even start the baking process. Would you recommend using candy clay at all for such an undertaking? Would the rose petals melt/wilt if it gets a little warm? (Not OUTSIDE warm, just not refrigerated.) Will they hold up after sitting around for two weeks? Has anyone done this?

I'd rather go with the modeling chocolate, but I wanted to get some opinions from all you experienced people out there... I'd rather people be able to eat the roses without chipping any teeth...

Modelling chocolate will be fine. I kept one that I made (a leftover) for a year and it was still good. Gumpaste will look finer but definately will be inedible.

I made chocolate clay roses and used a caramel hershey's kiss as the centre. It worked really well and everyone loved the surprise inside. I made them on toothpicks so I could remove them and put them on the cake easily.

Ooh, that's a good idea!