Recently, our neighbor asked me to make a carrot cake for a birthday party she was throwing for her good friend. I used my favorite carrot cake recipe. It's so flavorful and goes so well with the slightly tangy-but-sweet cream cheese frosting. My neighbor asked me to decorate it with pink and purple flowers, so I decided to try out the buttercream flowers I'd seen on My Cake School.
One of these days, I really want to make a double-barreled cake (twice as tall as a regular cake) so I can do some kind of cascading design down the side. This cake was just a standard height (they only needed to feed about 15 people), so I cascaded the flowers across the top and side of the cake. I'd also love to try all-white flowers at some point; I think the white-on-white would look very elegant.
It was fun to try my hand at different shaped flowers, and Melissa's tutorial made it really easy to learn how to pipe them. I strongly recommend piping more flowers than you need in case one falls apart when you try to adhere it to the cake. You're really limited only by the size (height) of your piping tips. For example, I could only pipe a really low rose (see above) with the small size rose tip I have.
I used white pearls for the centers of the flowers. Silver dragees are nice, too, or other-colored sugar pearls. The flowers are piped onto small squares of parchment, placed on a cookie sheet, and refrigerated until firm. Then it's really easy to peel the parchment off the back and press them gently to the side (or top) of the cake. Obviously, you don't want to handle them too much, or they will warm up and get smushed. If the flowers won't stick easily on their own, pipe a dab of frosting onto the back of the flower and then gently press it onto the cake.
The cake was a hit and as always, I enjoyed trying something new! I would definitely be willing to grab some more piping tips and play with buttercream flowers again.
Print carrot cake recipe.
Print cream cheese frosting recipe.
One of these days, I really want to make a double-barreled cake (twice as tall as a regular cake) so I can do some kind of cascading design down the side. This cake was just a standard height (they only needed to feed about 15 people), so I cascaded the flowers across the top and side of the cake. I'd also love to try all-white flowers at some point; I think the white-on-white would look very elegant.
It was fun to try my hand at different shaped flowers, and Melissa's tutorial made it really easy to learn how to pipe them. I strongly recommend piping more flowers than you need in case one falls apart when you try to adhere it to the cake. You're really limited only by the size (height) of your piping tips. For example, I could only pipe a really low rose (see above) with the small size rose tip I have.
I used white pearls for the centers of the flowers. Silver dragees are nice, too, or other-colored sugar pearls. The flowers are piped onto small squares of parchment, placed on a cookie sheet, and refrigerated until firm. Then it's really easy to peel the parchment off the back and press them gently to the side (or top) of the cake. Obviously, you don't want to handle them too much, or they will warm up and get smushed. If the flowers won't stick easily on their own, pipe a dab of frosting onto the back of the flower and then gently press it onto the cake.
The cake was a hit and as always, I enjoyed trying something new! I would definitely be willing to grab some more piping tips and play with buttercream flowers again.
Print carrot cake recipe.
Print cream cheese frosting recipe.
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