The bursting bounty of springtime, when every shoot and bud comes to life, is perfectly captured in the exuberance of this design. The flowers crowd together, completely covering the cake surface, jostling with the fresh green leaves. It’s the perfect show-stopper for a spring wedding!
1. Pipe the camellias and chrysanthemums in advance: use light pink buttercream for the camellias, light peach for the peach ruffle flowers and light purple for the chrysanthemum flowers, and set aside (see Piping Flowers).
2. Stack and crumb coat the cake (see Cake Basics), then pipe thin blobs of plain buttercream all around the cake where you will position the flowers.
3. Pipe clusters of ruffles for leaves randomly all around the blobs using a Wilton leaf nozzle 74 with light green buttercream and a back and forth wiggle of the piping bag, but leave few spaces for the light yellow blossom flowers.
4. Pipe pulled petals for the yellow blossoms (see Piping Flowers) on some of the blobs using a Wilton petal nozzle 102 with light yellow buttercream.
5. Position all the ready-made flowers on the buttercream blobs. The blobs will need to be reasonably fresh so that flowers will adhere properly.
6. Pipe the centres of the flowers, using dark yellow for the chrysanthemums, light yellow for the camellias and light caramel for the yellow blossoms. Use a piping bag with a small hole cut at the tip for piping the centres.
7. Fill the rest of the gaps between flowers by piping pulled-petal-type leaves using a Wilton leaf nozzle 352 with pale green buttercream (see Piping Flowers).
The intensity of the flowers just seems to increase when they are on a smaller cake! Aim to fill every bit of the surface with flowers and ruffle leaves to get the full floral effect. Keep your cake stand or board simple to allow the cake to shine. The cupcakes should also appear crammed to bursting with blossoms.
