How do you Make Simple Flower Cake Decorations

Flowers impart a very pleasing appearance to a birthday or wedding cake. There are many edible flowers which can be used to decorate cakes. Edible flowers are 100% fit for consumption. Using edible flowers for cake decoration is much easier as compared to making flowers from frosting. This is the reason why edible flowers are being widely used for simple flower cake decorations. Flowers impart a very pleasing appearance to a birthday or wedding cake. There are many edible flowers which can be used to decorate cakes. Edible flowers are 100% fit for consumption. Using edible flowers for cake decoration is much easier as compared to making flowers from frosting. This is the reason why edible flowers are being widely used for simple flower cake decorations.

Which Flowers can be Used ?

There are many cake decorating flowers which are grown specifically for consumption. Many growers of such flowers operate through the internet and ship the flowers to customers. There is a whole lot of options of edible flowers for cake decoration.

Some are as follows :-

• Hibiscus

• Orchids

• Dahlia

• Pansies

• Rose

• Lilacs

• Impatiens

• Begonia

• Bachelor Buttons

• Mums

There is a plethora of colours, sizes and shapes of edible flowers to choose from which opens up a wide range of design options for decorating the cakes. There are many types of seasonal flowers which bloom during particular months, thereby expanding the design options in those months.

How to Decorate Cakes for Happy Birthday ?

Edible flowers can either be used in plain form or candied form. Plain flowers simply need to be pressed in the cake in their original form. Candied flowers can also be used to decorate cakes. For this, you need to coat the flowers with beaten egg white using a paintbrush followed by sprinkling extra fine sugar on them. The flowers should then be allowed to dry for a few hours prior to being added to the cake. Flowers with strong flavours are usually candied to suppress their strong flavours and make them crunchy.

Frosting which retains its softness for long periods of time should be used if you want to decorate the cake using edible flowers. To this end, a good option is Swiss meringue buttercream. American buttercream does not tend to retain the flowers because it forms a crust.

After assembling the layers of the cake, add a crumb coat. Crumb coat is a thin layer of frosting which provides the base for outer layer of frosting and prevents crumbs from the cake from falling. Thereafter, add more frosting on the crumb coat. The frosting should cover the sides and top of the cake. Spread the frosting to impart a smooth surface to the cake. Add flowers to the cake just a few minutes before it is cut. If flowers arrived a long time before the cake was prepared, keep them in a refrigerator. This is because flowers wilt even in room temperature and it is important to add fresh flowers only to cakes. Start adding the flowers from the top and proceed to cover the sides. Imperfections in the texture of the cake are masked by the flowers.