I love the look of flowers cascading down the front of the cake. One popular way to achieve this look with either real or gum paste flowers. Today I’m excited to show you how to create the same elegant look with buttercream!
The majority of this video is devoted to piping several different styles of buttercream flowers. The actual attaching of the flowers is quite easy. You simply need to allow time for the flowers to dry on squares of parchment (or waxed paper). In the video, I also explain that I like to pipe a circle of frosting before piping the petals on top of it. This gives us a nice, flat base which will make the attaching process simpler. It also ensures that the petals are well secured, which is especially nice when you’d like to space out your petals (as we do with our buttercream ribbon roses).
Don’t forget to check beneath the video for a few notes and materials used. Enjoy the video!
Materials
My cake tiers are 8″/6″. (The 6″ is a double barrel cake and is 7 inches tall).
A Crusting Buttercream/Frosting- I used our High Ratio frosting as found in the recipes section.
Piping Tips- Wilton 102, 104 (petal tips), Wilton 81 (for “mums”), Wilton 10 or 12 for piping the base circle of frosting.
Dragees or Sugar Pearls- Any variety you’d like. I have an assortment of mostly India Tree brand dragees, and my sugar pearls are by Wilton.
Rose/Flower Nail
Parchment Paper/Waxed Paper (Parchment is a little more porous which speeds along the drying.)
styrofoam/cardstock circle- This is optional. I used this to extend the surface of my rose nail for the larger flowers.
Gold Airbrush Color or Luster “paint”- I used Duff’s brand gold airbrush color to add the gold accents to my dried flowers
A Few Notes~
In the video I use our high ratio shortening recipe, but any crusting frosting/buttercream recipe will do. The flowers were dry enough to carefully handle after 24 hours. Most of the flowers used in my video had been drying for 1 ½ days. Dry times can vary, as we say so often. So, until you really have time to experiment, I would make them 1 ½ to 2 days before you plan to apply them to the cake.
While the buttercream flowers are firm enough to hold, they are not hard, and still have a bit of softness on the inside. As we mentioned in the video, if you like the piped look of the flowers but would like to have a stockpile for later use, royal icing is a great option!
I liked using dragees in our cake to add to the vintage feel, but dragees are expensive (often at least $10 for a bottle). I use them so sparingly that one bottle lasts me well over a year.
Dragees are very hard, and are not considered to be edible, although I think many of us have eaten our share of silver dragees on Christmas cookies as kids ;0) — There is nothing like dragees to add that metallic pop of bling. You could easily substitute sugar pearls or even balls of fondant or piped buttercream!
Please let me know if you have any questions!
Thank you so much! I really enjoyed this video.
this is gorgeous! How do these hold up on the cake – will they slide of at all? They look heavy, but they are soo stunning!
i was just wondering what cake recipe you used for your cakes
I LOVE this!! What size are the gold dragees?
Hi Melissa! You made these simple flowers look so pretty and the cake looks so amazing! Great job! I will try with BC. I will still be scared to press them on the cake like you did, but royal icing flowers are more sturdy. Anyway i will give it a try and let you know how it goes.
Thanks!
Sadia
This is so beautiful! I honestly never realized that you could make flowers with buttercream, and let them dry so you can pick them up! You CAN teach an old dog new tricks! lol Thanx for another great video. =)
I love this tutorial. Video was awesome! :)
Melissa, awesome, awesome elegant and modern cake! Luv it!
What size in mm are the large gold dragees and the silver ones you put alongside the large gold ones? Thanks!
I LOVE this cake! It is so beautiful! I can not wait to try some of those beautiful flowers!
Hi Tanya, the gold dragees are 8mm. The silver ones are made by India Tree and the bottle says, size #4.
Hi Melissa – this is beautiful! Would a different frosting work (even a regular bakery icing that’s part shortening/part butter)? Or do you really need the all shortening-based frosting to get the flowers to harden?
Oh, silly me for not reading all the way through. Sorry!
Thanks everybody!! @Erica–we didn’t have any trouble with sliding. I was a little worried about that with our large ruffled flowers but they stuck right on with no trouble and did not slide one bit. The flowers do become a little lighter once they have a chance to dry. This cake sat out overnight and into the next day–nothing changed! ;0)
This is exceptional..can this be done in swiss meringue butter cream if I use substitute half the butter for shortening?
Thanks Eva–My guess would be that adding the shortening wouldn’t make much difference. I’ve never tried it, but I just don’t think that the SMBC is going to dry out for you.
I have heard of people freezing their buttercream flowers so that they can place them on the cake…this may be a good experiment for SMBC flowers. I would do a trial run first though since I haven’t tried it! One plus of being able to dry the flowers is that they do feel a little lighter after they’ve dried. If I were going to freeze the piped flowers before applying to the cake, I wouldn’t make them quite as large.
I’ll let you know if I experiment with this!
love love love this new video thank you so much please keep them coming i look forward to seeing what it coming
Melissa, you never cease to amaze us :) your designs are so stunning, and yet you break it down to simplify it beautifully. I’m wondering if there are any concerns for transportation with the BC flowers on this cake? I would love to surprise my niece with a version of this beautuful cake. Again..thanks for all your sharing..your site is surely one of the best out there for tutorials!!
Thanks Trina Cakelover!! –
@Cakelover–It should be just fine to travel with! There were a couple of times that I had to remove a flower in this video (off camera) –Once because I wanted to use a different flower, and another time because it was in the way of my border that I was piping. Both times, I had to really twist & wiggle the flowers to remove them. They were on there really securely once the icing had crusted.
Silly question- Are the flowers edible or should they be removed when cutting the cake?
Hi Kim–They are edible! I took a bite out of one two days later– “quality control” ;0) –They are dry on the outside but still somewhat soft in the middle. Most will probably not eat them… but the ones with a sweet tooth may ;0)
Can’t wait to watch the video but not having any luck getting it going on my iPad.
Love, love LOVE this! It’s gorgeous, super simple and I heart anything that can be done ahead of time :) Quick question: I use an all butter buttercream on my cakes, but am excited to use the high ratio BC for the flowers. Do you think the flowers would stick securely to the buttercream if it’s all butter? It doesn’t crust but if it’s cold, the buttercream is really firm. I think it’d be ok, but would love to know what you think. Thanks for another great video!
Hi Di, it’s playing on our ipad. If you will email us at http://www.info@mycakeschool.com with a description of what you are seeing when the screen comes up, we will try to trouble shoot.
Hi Abbie, I do think that it should work, though we haven’t tried this on a non crusting buttercream. To be on the safe side, you could give it a test try with maybe one flower. If there is no time for that, I would place the flowers on close to party time or keep the decorated cake refrigerated until near the event.
Hey Melissa, has anyone commented about the viewing of the video? It plays for about a minute then stops for about another minute, which continues to do this. I haven’t been on for awhile……Can we buy downloads now on your projects? I really would like to see this project… ;)
Beautiful cake, nearly tempted to try buttercream piping again lol
Hi Chrissy, We have not been having complaints on that video and it is playing for us. Usually that means that something needs to be updated, especially if you have been able to watch videos at an earlier time. Please visit the homepage and look for Member Resources on the right side, select Member FAQ. Once there scroll down to #5, there you will find a number of video problems along with solutions. Let us know if you continue to have problems and we will try to help you further.
Your question about downloading videos………no, we don’t have that option.
Hi Bebe/Melissa, I’m also having trouble viewing this on my iPad. The screen says “Flash” thank you!
Love this tutorial so much! My question is concerning storing, can the flowers be stored, and if so how, and for how long? Thanks
this is really Lovely!! my holiday is over and i am back to base!! i cant wait to start caking!!! Well done Melisssa and Bebe!!!
Hi Donna, we have not tested it over 5 days for taste. We do have some flowers left over from making that cake and they still look good. Our hi ratio shortening recipe did use milk but I think the high amount of sugar will keep bacteria from growing as the flower dry. You could use water instead of milk when making to remove that worry.
This cake is exquisite! I want to try this in the very near future.
Melissa I enjoyed watching this video, the flowers are beautiful, I am blessed to belong in My Cake School.
Thanks so much, Patti & ladyofaith!!
Love this. I love the buttercream decorating. There seems so much focus on fondant. So I like buttercream ideas.
Just wondering- how does this buttercream frosting look when cutting into the cake? Does it crack?
Hi Maricruz– No, the high ratio frosting doesn’t crack when sliced although it is a crusting buttercream. Depending on how long the flowers have dried, they may be a little difficult to neatly slice through. So, if this is the case, they can simply be removed or sliced around.
Good evening, I like to thank you for more than a brilliant blog apologized that my English is not good but I have queries, there are more than tutorial I can not keep it, and I can not view it, for example, this video Please help and thank you again
I used this blog to make the flowers on my son’s wedding cake. The result was beautiful! Thanks!!
@Linda~ I am so happy to hear that!! I just love buttercream flowers! —
@Ghufran~ I think that we may have talked in another post– please let me know if you are still having trouble! While you cannot save or “keep” the videos, you should always have viewing access for as long as you are a member! (e-mail me at info@mycakeschool.com if you need help!)
I don’t see a video at all..
Hi Carmen–Are you still unable to see the video? If not, send us an e-mail at info@mycakeschool.com and we can help you with updates that may need to be made to your computer.
Thank you Melissa,was able to see it today! Loving all the video tutorials!
Love this video! I prefer to work in buttercream and not fondant, and this is perfect for a wedding cake I have to make in June! One question – how would you go about cutting the top tier at a wedding? Maybe a silly question, but I am sure I will be the one who has to cut the cake! Thank you!
Hi Jean, the double barrel top tier is four 6″ layers and it is approx. 7 inches tall. There is a cake board and dowels under the first two layers of the double barrel. So you would cut down to the cake board, serving the first two layers…remove the cake board and dowels and cut the remaining 2 layers of the double barrel tier.
We are happy you are considering making this in June.
Hi Melissa. Congratulations on your work, I love decorating cakes and you make it look so easy. I am so glad I found your school on the internet! You’ve worked these buttercream flowers in warm climates? You know it’s working properly? Thanks for your answer.
Hi Mary, thanks for your nice comments. The buttercream Melissa used for these flowers was made with a crusting buttercream recipe such as the Fluffy Vanilla recipe made with regular shortening or with hi ratio shortening. We have not tried making them using the Classic (all butter) recipe. They do hold up very well although I would worry about leaving them outside on an 80 degree day. We need to test that.
Hey Bebe & Melissa,
I have a question about the frosting. I would love to make these flowers for a cake , but I don’t have high ratio shortening and I won’t have time to order it and have it in time for a up coming order. If I used Cisco will the frosting/flower work out fine?
Hi Sweet Gigi, yes you could use all Crisco shortening in the frosting when making these flowers. You might want to use the Fluffy Buttercream recipe instead of the High Ratio Buttercream. A high ratio shortening can absorb much more liquid so if you substitute Crisco you would need to reduce the liquid used….so it would just be easier to use the Fluffy Buttercream recipe.
Just make sure you allow enough time for the flowers to dry throughly…..and make a couple of extra flowers, just in case.
I have a bride that wants this cake for her wedding in November. What is the earliest you would suggest making the flowers? And once dried what is recommended storage? Thanks
Absolutely STUNNING!! I can’t believe it’s all buttercream, I have to try these flowers! Thanks again for sharing your expertise :)
Hi Melissa I am in awe of these! You are truly blessed with amazing talent. Can royal icing versions of these be placed on a buttercream cake or will they go funny? Thanks :)
Hi Ashleigh– Thanks! I have placed royal decorations on crusting buttercream for long periods with no problems or softening. But, to be on the safe side, it’s best to do it the day of the event. I always like to do a test run of anything that I’ve never tried before, to eliminate any surprises. So, you may want to make your royal flowers and place them on a plate that is spread with whatever frosting you’ll be using. This will give you a good idea of how long it would take for them to soften (if they soften at all).
Thank you Melissa :)
Absolutely stunning. What do you think about the possibility of gently spraying some gold food coloring on (the kind Wilton sells) or would that make the flower too wet?
wed1121 says:
I have a bride that wants this cake for her wedding in September. What is the earliest you would suggest making the flowers? And once dried what is recommended storage? Thanks
@Joan–I’m sorry, I didn’t see your question before! – I think that the spraying the gold coloring would work just fine on the dried flowers! —
@wed1121– I would say 2 days of dry time should be safe bet. It was for me. I would really recommend testing out dry times in your area though to be on the safe side, since humidity levels vary. Maybe do a trial run with a few of the flowers. If using high ratio/shortening based frosting, you won’t have to worry about leaving them out for days if you’d like. I would place them in a bakery box that can breathe, and just leave at room temp. Let us know how it goes!
Hi Melissa! This is one of the many cakes of yours that I love. I will be making this cake for a wedding in July. I’m concerned that during transport some of the flowers may fall off. Are they really secure with only the buttercream on the back to hold them in place?
Hi Sandy– They did seem very secure with just that buttecream “glue”. Since you have time on your side, I would do a trial run on a smaller scale just to see what you think. It would be easy enough to attach on site, or to make a few extra just in case! ;0) – I’m happy that you are making it!
I am very happy to see and learn about your beautiful projects.
Thank you!!
Wow Malissa, this a is beautiful cake… you are so talented.
This is one beautiful cake! I can’t wait to try making these flowers! Thank you so much Melissa & BeBe!
Thank you Susie & Seema! :0) So glad that you liked the video.
hi, i can not hear where you explain how you are attaching the flowers to the cake, what are you using to stick them on the side of the cake? thanks
Hi Fanny- We are using buttercream as our glue (the same recipe as we used to frost the cake and make the flowers.) – Any crusting frosting would work well.
Can these flowers be placed in the fridge or will that ruin them
I am logged in as “scullyb001@hawaii.rr.com” because I became a member of your cake school a few years back….but I have changed my email address to
LOLITABONITASKIDS@GMAIL.COM.
Please respond to my question to the new email…Thank you!
Also subscribe me to your newsletter with the new email address.
Hi, This is an older video and in recent years we have been piping flowers and freezing them until firm. Usually this takes 20 minutes or so, then attaching them on the cake with buttercream. Removing the frozen flowers from the refrigerator just a few at a time works best because they begin to soften quickly making them hard to handle.