Vintage Floral Piped Cake Tutorial

If you have yet caught the buttercream bug, then you definitely will with Carey Madden’s new book, Sensational Buttercream Decorating

Covering basic buttercream decorating techniques from scratch, Carey takes the reader on a journey from the absolute basics to becoming accomplished in the art of beautifully decorated buttercream cakes. Sensational Buttercream Decorating encompasses a range of styles including floral, classical, fabric, graphic art, vintage and international-inspired designs with 50 projects in total to inspire you.

We have one of Carey’s exquisitely pretty cakes and instructions to share with you this week but if you’d like to delve deeper into the art of buttercream, Sensational Buttercream Decorating can be found at all good bookshops and online.

You will need:

Six inch layer cake, sliced, filled, crumb-coated, iced with with pale peach smooth buttercream and chilled.
Tinted buttercream (175mls) in the following colours: light brown, dark pink, light blue, dark peach, dark green, light green, pale peach (for the scallop border top and bottom).
Seven piping bags and couplers
Piping tips/tubes: No. 6 round, No. 3 round, No. 2 round, No. 80 U tip, No. 14 open star tip, No. 352 leaf tip (2 of them – one for the dark green, one for the light green).
Cocktail stick, tweezers and sugar pearls.

Instructions:

Use a cocktail stick to dot small arcs on the side of the cake for the stems, alternating between placing them near the top and near the bottom to create two rings of staggered arcs around the cake as per the design above. To add interest, mark some of the arcs curving upwards, some curving downwards, some curving left and some curing right.
Using the brown icing and the No. 2 round tip, pipe over all the arcs/stems.
Using the dark pink icing and the No. 80 U tip , pipe two rings of petals to form the cupped flower at the middle of each arc.
Using the blue icing and the No. 3 tip, pipe one or two “five-dot daisies” on each arc, placing them randomly.
Using the dark peach icing and the No. 14 open star tip, pipe or two small rosettes on each arc, placing them randomly.
Using dark green icing and one of the No. 352 leaf tips, pipe one or two leaves on each stem, placing them randomly.
Using the light green icing and the second No. 352 leaf tip, pipe another one or two leaves on each stem, again placed randomly.
Use the tweezers to place three or four sugar pearls around each stem, randomly.
Using pale peach icing and the No. 6 round tip, pipe a smooth scallop border around the bottom of the cake.
To finish, pipe a smooth scallop border along the top edge of the cake also.

Courtesy of Sensational Buttercream Decorating: 50 Projects for Cakes, Mini-Cakes & Cupcakes by Carey Madden, 2014 © www.robertrose.ca. Reprinted with publisher permission.

Readers might also be interested in the following features:

Buttercream Piping, Part 1 – How to Pipe a Buttercream Petal Cake
Buttercream Piping, Part 2 – How to Pipe a Buttercream Ruffles & Buttercream Frills
Buttercream Piping, Part 3 – How to Pipe Buttercream Roses
Buttercream Flowers & Floral Wreath Cakes
More on Buttercream Flowers
Cupcake Bouquets & Buttercream Flower Tutorials
Floral Buttercream Hatbox Cake Tutorial by Valeri Valeriano & Christina Ong
Buttercream Crochet Lace Cake Tutorial by The Queen of Hearts Couture Cakes
Layer Cake Love – Ode to Sweetapolita
Pretty Birthday Cakes
Sewing, Knitting & Crafting Cakes
Stained Glass Cake Art
Piping Techniques Part 1: Piping Pearls & Beaded Garlands
Piping Techniques Part 2: Piping Drop Strings
Piping Techniques Part 3: Piping Scrolls
Lace Piping & Lace Wedding Cakes

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For more on the latest buttercream techniques, check out Erica O’Brien’s Better Buttercream classes on Craftsy below.

Learn to create beautiful buttercream flowers on Make Fabulous Cakes, below.

You’ll find more buttercream flowers classes online with Crafty’s Fresh Arrangements: Buttercream & Beyond class (below left) and Buttercream Basics teaching the pretty buttercream flowers cake and piped buttercream messages (below right).

And if you want to take your buttercream art skills to a whole other level, then check out buttercream superstars, Valeri Valeriano & Christina Ong’s classes: Innovative Buttercream Cakes & Unbelievable Buttercream Techniques.