Originally a wildflower, this daisy-like plant is now widely cultivated in the garden. The bright yellow petals surround dark brown, almost purplish, central disks of florets – the ‘black eye’.
1. To create flowers that are back to back with each other, pipe two blobs of buttercream and two guide circles to help with positioning.
2. Hold your nozzle with the tip touching the first guide circle, give the piping bag a firm squeeze and pipe a leaf technique petal (see Basic Petal Strokes) in yellow.
3. Repeat the same process and pipe petals all around the first guide circle.
4. Pipe a small mound in the centre of the first guide circle using brown buttercream in a piping bag with a small hole cut at the tip.
5. Using black buttercream, pipe a layer of short lines around the brown mound then continue to pipe more layers until the whole mound is covered.
6. Repeat the same process for the second flower.