Grown for their showy spikes of colourful summer flowers in gorgeous shades of blue, pink, white and purple, delphiniums may produce single or double flowers, and some blossoms sport dramatic black or white centres.
1. Pipe a guide line to determine how long you want the flower to be. Using dark blue buttercream in your piping bag, position the nozzle to one side of the guide and hold it at a 20 to 30 degree angle.
2. Pipe a short fan-shaped petal (see Basic Petal Strokes) for the bottom and then another on top of it to create a flower.
3. Repeat the same process to pipe all the flowers on one side of the guide line.
4. Continue to pipe all the flowers on the other side, leaving a small gap up the centre.
5. Fill the gap with an upright wavy petal (see Basic Petal Strokes) to give the middle of the flower some body, then pipe flowers up the centre to cover the gap.
6. Use untinted buttercream in a bag with a small hole at the tip to pipe the very short spikes in the centre of each flower.