The Contemporary Buttercream Bible (23 page)

• Cake stand or covered cake board

Crumb coat then cover the cake with 200–300g

(7–101⁄2oz) of plain buttercream and blend using

100–200g (31⁄2–7oz) light blue green from the base

up (see Blending in Palette Knife Techniques).

Smooth the cake (see Smoothing in Buttercream

Basics). Colour 100–200g (31⁄2–7oz) buttercream

dark pink, 200–300g (7–101⁄2oz) dark green and

100–150g (31⁄ –51

2

⁄2oz) light green. Pipe the roses,

following the tutorial, using dark pink and

250–300g (9–101⁄2oz) plain buttercream for a

two-tone effect (see Up and Down Two-tone Ruffles

in Piping Textures and Patterns). Pipe a rose bud in

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the same colours following the tutorial. Pipe stems

in dark green using the crochet technique (see

Crochet in Textile Effects). Add leaves in dark green (see Sunflower and Leaves) and tendrils in light

green.

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Piping and Arranging

Flowers on a Cake

Now that you have learned how to pipe a whole

garden-f of buttercream flowers, you can become

a florist and arrange them on a cake. Here are four

techniques you can use in order to position them

securely and at the desired angle, to create just the look that you want. Anyone would be delighted to

receive a beautiful bouquet of flowers – even more

so if they are edible!

1
To securely attach a flower:
Pipe some roses in advance and use the freezing method described

in the Roses tutorial. Ideally, roses should be the

first flowers to be positioned on a cake. Decide

where you want them and using a piping bag with a

simple round nozzle (or just snip off the end of the

piping bag), continuously squeeze the bag to create

a blob. Peel off a rose from the greaseproof (wax)

paper and quickly rest it on the blob (A). A palette

knife and scissors can help you to tweak the

position. Hold the sides of the rose and slightly

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twist as you press down to make sure that it sticks

to the blob securely so it won’t fall off.

A

2
To position a flower at a desired angle:

Using a piping bag with a simple round nozzle (or

just snip off the end of the piping bag), pipe a blob big and wide enough to create a flat surface for the

flower to sit on. Make the blob high enough to raise

the flower up to the right height (B), and pipe your

flowers onto the raised blobs (C, D, E).

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B

C

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D

E

3
To pipe flowers on the side of the cake:

Make sure that you apply a little more pressure

when you are piping, so that you are sure that the

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flowers stick to the cake. Avoid piping heavy flowers that use a lot of buttercream, such as carnations, on the side of a cake as they will sag or simply fall off.

4
To use flowers as fillers:
You can pipe small flowers like hydrangeas, sweet peas and violets as

well as leaves to cover up the blobs and to fill the

gaps between flowers (F). Don’t pipe all the leaves

in the same shade of green, but prepare several

different shades to make the results more realistic.

F

Tip

If positioning several flowers, pipe a guide

circle on the surface of the cake to ensure your

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blobs, and therefore your flowers, are evenly

spaced. When decorating a cake with a

number of flowers on top you can simply

crumb coat the top of the cake and add the

flowers straight on top of that. There is no

need to give the top a second layer of smooth

buttercream as there is a tendency to use a lot

of buttercream in the piping of the flowers and

it can all become a bit too much!

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To create this cake…

• 15 × 10cm (6 × 4in) round cake

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• 1.05–1.75kg (1lb 4oz–3lb 12oz) buttercream

• Paste colours: dark pink (Sugarflair Claret), light pink (Sugarflair Pink), red (Sugarflair Ruby Red),

orange (Sugarflair Tangerine), purple (Sugarflair

Grape Violet), green (Sugarflair Spruce Green or

Gooseberry) and brown (Sugarflair Dark Brown)

• Piping bags

• Cake stand or covered cake board

• Small petal nozzles (Wilton 104)

• Small leaf nozzles (Wilton 352)

• Scissors

Cover the cake using plain buttercream and giving

it a smooth finish (see Covering Cakes in

Buttercream Basics) and place on a stand or

covered board. Colour 150–250g (51⁄2–9oz) of

buttercream in each of the following colours: dark

pink, light pink, red, orange, purple, green and

brown. First pipe the roses, then the sunflower,

chrysanthemum, carnation, sweet pea and finally

the hydrangea and leaves according to the tutorials

in this chapter, and bearing in mind the advice on

arranging buttercream flowers on a cake. Complete

the cake by piping a border around the base (see

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Shells and Fleur-de-lis in Piping Textures and

Patterns).

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Cupcake Bouquet

A ‘cupcake bouquet’ is the way we describe a flower

arrangement

made

of

colour-coordinated,

divine-tasting cupcakes. It is the perfect picture of an edible work of art and makes a stunning

centrepiece or a lovely gift for any occasion. The key element used here is either a polystyrene

(Styrofoam) ball, or several plastic cups. The cup

method benefits from very easy to source materials,

but both yield lovely results. Be a little playful when choosing your decoration and use different

coloured papers and various accents.

Styrofoam-ball Method

1 Place the Styrofoam ball into a flower pot and

secure it with a glue or sticky tape. You may cover

your pot with pretty fabric or leave it plain. Tie

around some matching ribbons (A).

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