I've never eaten a rose before. “Can you really eat it?” I asked Marie Spiwak, as she handed me a beautiful single bloom which looked every inch like a real one.

“Yes, you can, but you don’t have to,” she laughs.

Marie is a talented sugarcraft artist. She creates all manner of things out of a special paste, made from icing sugar and a handful of other ingredients. On display in the cosy craft room of her Bradford home are sugar ladies in fine dresses, garlands of sugar flowers – there’s even a sugar greenhouse, complete with sugar plant pots.

And then there are the individual flower heads: roses and lilies, indistinguishable from the real thing. The lily is truly amazing, softly coloured in cream, flecked with rust, with curling petals and a central bud.

“My cousin came to visit once, and I showed him a lily of the valley I had made,” recalls Marie, who lives in Wrose. “I told him the flower was made from sugar, and before I could say anything else he’d picked it up and eaten it.”

Turning the delicate, cream rose in my hand, I’m not at all inclined to follow his lead.

“It’s so perfect,” I say, admiring the folded petals and delicate centre. It is so good I’m convinced I can smell it.

Sugarcrafters use a mix of icing sugar, gum tragacanth, white vegetable fat, gelatine, egg white and a small amount of cornflour to create a pliable sweet paste which they use to create detailed models. They also apply their talents to cakes, adding intricate sugarcraft designs to the iced base, which is generally the firmer Royal or Regal icing.

Marie loves her hobby. “It is very relaxing, and I have made so many friends through it.” She is a member of White Rose Sugar Art Club, who meet monthly at Shipley Library.

It’s time for me to have a go, and Marie hands me a small plastic bag containing a ball of white paste.

“Take a small amount, knead it, smooth it between your fingers to iron out any creases and work it into a bud shape.”

The shape is conical, and I have trouble getting it as neat as Marie’s, so she gives me a hand by offering a small mould. “When you take it out, roll it between your fingers to get rid of the ‘tail’,” she says, “Then nip off the end to leave a bud.”

Compared with Marie’s, mine is a poor relation. “Practise makes perfect,” she says, encouragingly. “The great thing about sugarcraft is that no two flowers are alike, so it doesn’t matter if you make a mistake, if for instance, one has got more petals than another.”

With the bud in my hand, I tip it into a special glue made from edible tylo powder. Marie shows me how to insert a small piece of wire for the stem, which is non-edible. Green tape is wound around the wire.

Next we start on the petals. Marie takes a tiny cutter from her sugarcraft kit – “you need a box of tricks for this job” – to create four petal shapes from the pieces of paste which lie flat on the cutting board. “I put a bit of cornflour underneath to stop it sticking,” she explains. I too cut the petals and, using a tool resembling a thin candle, Marie demonstrates how to curl them. I follow her lead to make subtle undulations on each petal to give them a more realistic appearance.

Wrapping the petals around the bud brings the flower to life. It is tricky, but I soon get the hang of it.

“It is fiddly when you first try it – you have to have patience,” says Marie, who holds a City & Guilds qualification in the art, as well as a number of other certificates in different areas of sugarcraft. She is also qualified to teach the subject.

Marie demonstrates how to press alternate petals against the bud, and build them up from the middle where they are tighter, to make the rose. It is exciting to see the flower taking shape.

Marie, who has two grown-up children and four grandchildren, took up sugarcraft 20 years ago after a back injury at work left her with restricted mobility. “I didn’t go out of the house for three years, and lost all confidence. I knew I had to get out and socialise.”

She looked for something which she could do sitting down, and signed up for classes in sugarcraft at Shipley and Bolton Royd Adult Education Centre. “I wanted something which would not leave me in pain, and this seemed ideal.”

She joined the White Rose club at its inception in the early 1990s, when seven people attended. Now there are more than 30 members, both women and men, of all ages. “It is a very friendly club, and new members are always welcome, as are visitors. We have visits from demonstrators , who show us new techniques.”

Along with other members, Marie belongs to the Cake Decorator’s Guild, and attends their annual exhibition at Birmingham NEC.

Marie’s husband Michael, who occasionally pops his head around the door to check our progress, is all in favour of her engrossing hobby. “It keeps me out of his hair,” she jokes.

I place more petals on the rose and have to admit it looks good. “You keep building, then when it is finished leave it to dry and gently brush on edible powder for colour,” adds Marie.

The finished rose looks great – far too good to eat. I can’t quite believe I’ve made it – with quite a bit of help from Marie.

The White Rose Sugar Art Club meet on the last Friday in the month at Shipley Library from 7.15pm to 9.15pm. They were holding a workshop this morning at Shipley Library from 10am. To find out more contact Diane Fairley on (01274) 603966 or ring Marie on (01274) 598407.