Today I'm sharing the beautifully unique (and easy!) technique of decorating cakes with painted fondant appliques.

We've decorated our cake with sweet and colorful daisies--I love the dimension that they add, the painted look of the fondant, and the pretty contrast against our pink buttercream!

We hope that you enjoy this cake design, which could easily be changed up not only with assorted flower cut-outs but also for any color scheme.

Whether you are creating a cake for a birthday or bridal shower, or a gathering of friends, this cake design would be perfect. Have fun with it!

How to Make a Painted Fondant Daisy Cake

You can find the full, printable instructions further down in this post, but here is a quick rundown of our steps!

In this video, we decorated an 8 inch/6 inch stacked tiered cake frosted with vanilla buttercream.

First, I used my daisy cutters in various sizes to cut out daisies. My fondant was rolled to about ⅛ inch thickness (I also like to knead a little bit of tylose powder into the fondant before rolling it out so that it will set up more quickly.)
I cut out teardrop-shaped leaves freehand- you can do this with a sharp knife or xacto knife.
I created paint with coloring gels mixed with a little vodka or everclear. I painted the yellow centers. And I painted a few of the flowers pink. Allow to dry completely- because of the vodka, the "paint" will dry quickly.
Paint the leaves.
Once everything is dry, go in with a skinny food writer/food coloring pen to outline the petals and leaves.
I stacked my tiers (on a pedestal) after freezing them for about 15 minutes or so-- you need to have supports beneath the 6 inch tier. I used 4 bubble tier straw supports in the 8 inch tier cut to the height of the cake and stacked the 6 inch on top. You can use a smear of buttercream to glue the 6 inch tier to the 8 inch.
Add the daisies to the tiered cake by adding fat dots of buttercream to the back of the flowers and leaves.

Painted Fondant Daisy Cake- Free Video Tutorial

This cute and fun tiered cake design with painted fondant daisies is so pretty, unique, and easy to make!

Materials

This cake consists of an 8 inch tier and 6 inch tier, frosted with our classic vanilla buttercream tinted with Wilton Rose coloring gel. Each tier is on its own cake cardboard as usual, cut down to size, and there are four bubble tea straw supports beneath the top tier (cut to the height of the bottom tier).
Fondant: We used fondant with a little tylose powder kneaded into it. Our fondant for this project was Satin Ice brand but use whatever you like. We kneaded a bit of tylose powder into the fondant to speed up the dry time and also so that the flowers would dry a bit firmer.
Daisy Cutters- Mine is from a simple Wilton Set of Daisies that I have had for many years but any set of daisies will do!
Food coloring pen: I'm using a thin Wilton Food Writer Pen in black for the outlining. When outlining a painted flower, make sure that it is completely dry first.
Coloring Gels: Wilton Rose, Americolor Avocado Green, White, Leaf Green, Lemon Yellow, Ivory
Vodka or Everclear for mixing with coloring gel to create a food-safe "paint"
Small paintbrushes (that haven't been used with actual paint ;0) )
Cake comb- Optional- Mine is from a Wilton Set of plastic cake combs.
Fondant rolling pin
Xacto knife or sharp knife for cutting out fondant leaves
Miscellaneous: small artist palette or plate for mixing colors, small offset spatula, turntable

Instructions

I used my daisy cutters in various shapes to cut out daisies from fondant that was rolled to about ⅛ inch thickness. I had kneaded a bit of tylose powder into my fondant so that it would firm up a little more quickly. (The tylose is optional- you could also just let the fondant daisies sit on out parchment to firm up to desired amount).
I cut out leaf shapes also freehand- you can do this with a sharp knife or xacto knife.
I created paint with coloring gels mixed with a little vodka or everclear. I painted the yellow centers. Allow to dry completely- because of the vodka, the "paint" will dry quickly.
Paint the leaves.
Once everything is dry, go in with a skinny food writer/food coloring pen to outline the petals and leaves.
I combed an 8 inch and 6 inch tier frosted with vanilla buttercream (tinted with Wilton Rose coloring gel). As usual, each cake is resting on it's own cake cardboard cut to the size of the cake.
I stacked my tiers (on a pedestal) after freezing them for about 15 minutes or so-- you need to have supports beneath the 6 inch tier. I used 4 bubble tier straw supports in the 8 inch tier cut to the height of the cake and stacked the 6 inch on top. You can use a smear of buttercream to glue the 6 inch tier to the 8 inch.
Add the daisies to the tiered cake by adding fat dots of buttercream to the back of the flowers and leaves.

Notes

You'll want to dry your fondant pieces for several hours or overnight if you'd like for some of the flowers and leaves to extend up and off of the cake slightly as mine did.

Make sure to allow your painted pieces to dry completely before outlining as the wet "paint" can cause the pen to stop working.