This daisy cake design would make the sweetest birthday party cake (just imagine it with cute birthday candles on top!) or the centerpiece for any special gathering. I’m thinking of Mother’s Day, a picnic in the park, a Sunday brunch, or any happy event on your calendar. You can use any of my cake recipes as the base of the cake and any light colored buttercream for the topping. Here are some of my suggestions, but feel free to use your favorite type of buttercream that’s pipeable and easy to color: 

• Vanilla Buttercream
• Vegan Vanilla Buttercream
• White Chocolate Buttercream
• Cream Cheese Buttercream
• Lavender Buttercream (it’s white if you don’t add the lavender color gel!)

The best part about this daisy cake is that the technique for piping the flowers is so easy. All you need is Wilton Tip 104 for the petals and Tip 10 for the centers. Watch this quick video tutorial to see how it’s done: 

If you’re into cake decorating videos like this one, be sure to check out my YouTube channel for further learning! I’m always rolling out new videos, so click the subscribe button while you’re there to ensure you never miss a new one.

You Will Need

• A layer cake that’s been crumb coated and chilled (mine is 6” diameter)
• Cake turntable
• Icing smoother
• Angled spatula 
• 3 Cups of light colored buttercream (I’m using one batch of this vanilla buttercream recipe)
• AmeriColor Egg Yellow (or yellow color gel of your choice)
• Wilton Tip 104
• Wilton Tip 10
• 2 piping bags 
• Palette knife or small food-grade paint brush (optional)

Step 1: Color the Buttercream

Reserve about ⅓ Cup of buttercream for piping the daisies, then add 3-5 drops of AmeriColor Egg Yellow (or other yellow food color gel) to tint the rest of the buttercream a medium yellow color. 

Step 2: Frost a Smooth Buttercream Finish

Place your chilled and crumb coated cake on the turntable and use the yellow buttercream you tinted in the previous step to frost a smooth buttercream finish onto the cake. Start by frosting a smooth layer on the very top of the cake with your angled icing spatula. Next, add buttercream to the sides of the cake and glide your icing smoother over them while turning the turntable to create smooth sides.

You’ll notice a crown of buttercream forming on the top edges of the cake, which is essential to getting sharp edges on the top. Use your angled icing spatula to swipe the crown inwards (toward the top center of the cake). Repeat until you’ve got nice sharp edges.

When your cake is looking ultra smooth, pop it into the refrigerator to firm up for at least 30 minutes. If you need more tips on creating a perfectly smooth cake finish, I’ve got a great tutorial for you here. 

Step 3: Pipe the Daisies

Place the white buttercream you reserved in Step 1 into a piping bag fitted with Wilton Tip 104. Add another drop of AmeriColor Egg Yellow to any leftover yellow buttercream and mix it to make a slightly darker yellow for the daisy centers. Add this darker yellow buttercream to a piping bag fitted with Wilton Tip 10. 

Starting with the white frosting, hold the piping bag so that Tip 104 is parallel to the side of the cake, angled so that the larger part of the opening is the tip of each daisy petal and the smaller part of the opening is the center of the flower. Hovering the piping tip about ⅛ inch from the surface, pipe the first daisy petal by squeezing the bag and quickly releasing pressure once you see a petal shape form. Repeat piping the petals in a circular formation, rotating your hand slightly after piping each petal. 

Repeat piping the clusters of daisy petals 1-2 inches apart, all over the sides and top of the cake. 

Pipe a dot of the darker yellow buttercream in the very center of each daisy petal cluster to finish each flower.

Step 4: Smooth the Centers (Optional) 

If the centers of the daisies are too peaked, you can smooth them down using either a small angled spatula or palette knife, or a small paint brush dipped in a little bit of water. Simply swipe the peaks with the palette knife or use the small paint brush (dipped in water) to gently press each peak down. 

And that’s it! The happiest little cake for your next Spring celebration and it couldn’t be easier to whip up with the right tools and a sunny color palette!

I hope you have the best time making this daisy cake! If you do end up making it, let me know what you’re celebrating in the comments below + be sure to tag @sugarandsparrowco on Instagram to show me. I love to see what you create! 

The post Daisy Cake Tutorial appeared first on Sugar & Sparrow.

Although there’s a ton of texture going on here, the design could not be simpler to create. I used a mix of simple fondant flowers, buttercream piped flowers, and sprinkles to make this cascading bouquet of blooms come to life. Incorporating all three of those elements helps to give depth to the design, but I’ve also created this cascading floral look with just buttercream and both ways look incredible! Whatever techniques you use, as long as you nail this floral placement, you really can’t lose. 

If you do include the cute little fondant flowers, I do recommend making them at least a day ahead, just because they’re much easier to work with when they’re firm. I made them with this plunger cutter set and loved how quick they were to cut out in a variety of sizes and colors. Allowing them to dry in a semi-sphere mold (or even on the inside curve of a bowl!) really helped give the petals the perfect shape. Probably the easiest fondant flowers I’ve ever made!  

And as far as the buttercream flowers go, all they really take is the right piping tips and a fun color palette. Including the Fuschia background color I used for the cake, this color palette consists of seven different buttercream colors! I do tend to get a little carried away when color mixing sometimes (it’s therapeutic!) but keep in mind that you can create this look with less colors, or really any color palette you want. With that in mind, feel free to follow the tutorial below closely or use it as inspiration for your floral cake creation. You do you! 

Here’s a quick video to show you the decorating techniques before you read all about them below:

Be sure to check out my YouTube channel to see even more cake decorating videos, tutorials, and recipes. Hit the Subscribe button while you’re there so you never miss a new video!

You Will Need 

• A 6-inch cake, filled and frosted in a solid color of your choice
• 3 1-inch balls of fondant
• Small rolling pin
• 1 tsp vegetable shortening
• Flower Plunger Cutter Set
• Flower drying mold
• 1 batch of vanilla buttercream
• Food color gels of your choice
• Bowls and spoons for mixing
• Piping bags
• Wilton Tip 1M (x2)
• Wilton Tip 4B (x2)
• Wilton Drop Flower tips: 190 and 225
• Sprinkles of your choice (I used the Sea Glass Mix by Sprinkle Pop)

Step 1: Make the Fondant Flowers

At least a day ahead (so the fondant flowers have time to dry), color the three 1-inch balls of fondant according to your chosen color scheme. I used Americolor Lemon Yellow, Fuschia, and Regal Purple for the colors shown below.

Coat a flat surface with a little bit of vegetable shortening, then roll the fondant out to about ⅛ inch thick.

Use the flower plungers to cut out a variety of floral shapes, gently pressing the plunge button to create the dot center on each one.

Finally, set the flowers to dry in a semi-sphere mold or the inside of a bowl so that the petals dry with some upward lift.

After about 24 hours, your fondant flowers should be dry and fully ready to use on your cake.

Step 2: Prepare the Buttercream 

Divide the vanilla buttercream evenly amongst separate bowls, one per color in your palette. Then color each bowl with your favorite color gels. For the color palette shown below, I used Americolor Fuschia, Lemon Yellow, Regal Purple (for both the light and dark purple), Turquoise (for both the light and dark turquoise), and Peach.

When your buttercream colors are ready to go, fit your piping bags with tips and fill each one with a different color. I fit the Fuschia and dark Regal Purple piping bags with Wilton Tip 1M, the Lemon Yellow and dark Turquoise piping bags with Wilton Tip 4B, the Peach bag with Wilton Tip 190, and the light Regal Purple and light Turquoise bags with Wilton Tip 225.

Feel free to use any variety of floral piping tips and colors you’d like for this look! 

Step 3: Decorate the Top of the Cake 

On the top of your frosted cake, start by piping some scattered rosettes with Wilton Tip 1M in a crescent moon shape.

Use the piping bags fitted with Wilton Tip 4B to pipe stars that follow the same crescent moon shape, allowing plenty of space to fill in with more florals.

Fill in most of the space with your drop flowers using Wilton Tips 190 and 225. If you’ve never piped a drop flower before, they’re super easy! Simply hold the piping tip at a 90 degree angle (straight down) about ⅛ inch from the cake surface. Then, twist the tip in a clockwise motion while you squeeze to swirl the petals before releasing.

Next, add the fondant flowers wherever you’d like, standing them at different angles. They’re super light weight, so they should stick right onto the buttercream without shifting or falling over.

Finally, fill in the empty spaces with spherical sprinkles of varying sizes. I loved adding some of the sprinkles to the buttercream flowers to give them a pretty center!

Step 4: Create the Floral Cascade 

To make these beautiful blooms look like they’re cascading down the side of the cake, repeat the above steps for piping, adding fondant flowers, and attaching sprinkles – only this time at a diagonal angle. Starting near one of the edges of the crescent moon shape you created along the top, pipe scattered rosettes diagonally down the side of the cake.

Pipe more stars with Wilton Tip 4B in that same diagonal direction down the side, then fill in most of the empty space with the drop flower tips to complete the general cascading shape.

Accent your cascading florals with fondant flowers and sprinkles until you are totally satisfied with all the textures going on.

This is one of those cake designs I get totally lost in and just keep adding things until I feel like it’s time to step back and marvel. These floral textures get me every time!

So pretty, right? I can’t wait to see your cascading floral cake creations – be sure to tag @sugarandsparrowco on Instagram to show me! We could all use something pretty to look at nowadays, so no matter what your reason is for making this cake design, it’s sure to bring some life to this crazy season. Hope you’re all safe, well and staying creative (or doing whatever brings you joy these days)!

The post Cascading Floral Cake Tutorial appeared first on Sugar & Sparrow.

Using a plastic palette knife set, I was able to turn little swipes of buttercream into a floral pattern all over my cake, and documented the entire process over on The Cake Blog! Head over there to see it all, and in the meantime, marvel at this beauty for your inspiration:

Inspired to whip up your own buttercream painted floral cake? I bet you are! Between the flowers blooming all around this season and this detailed tutorial on The Cake Blog, you’ve got all the inspiration you need to get the look.

The post Buttercream Painted Floral Cake appeared first on Sugar & Sparrow.