Flower Birthday Cake

The flower birthday cake featured here is covered with buttercream,  gum paste flowers, and a ladybug.
The floral birthday cake was made as a girl's 1st birthday cake. The cake is composed of 2 12" layers that have been filled and torted. The buttercream was smoothed using the Viva paper towel method.

Flower birthday cake supplies:

2-12" cakes, torted, filled and stacked
16" cake board
gold foil (to cover the cake board)
gum paste
6 gum paste roses
3 bunches of gum paste hydrangeas
#20 gauge wire
1 cupcake
5 batches buttercream icing recipe
pizza cutter
gel paste colors - purple, leaf green, pink
rose leaf gum paste cutter
cake decorating tips #6, 12, 124

A few days in advance, make the 6 gum paste roses, 3 gum paste hydrangea bunches,  about 8 gum paste rose leaves, and the gum paste #1.

To make the number for the cake, and you can use the same method for any number you choose, cut a piece of the 20 gauge wire a few inches long. Bend one end into a loop.

Roll a piece of gum paste that has been tinted pink into a ball in the palm of your hands to make it smooth.






Now roll the gum paste into a sausage shape. Place the looped end of the wire into the short end of the gum paste sausage. Now bend it into the number one.

Cover the 16" cake board with the gold foil by taping it underneath the board.

Begin assembling the flower birthday cake by torting, filling and stacking your 12" cake layers. I used the buttercream icing to create an icing dam between the layers, where I placed a pudding filling, so I really did go through an entire 5 batches of buttercream icing to make this cake. Let the cake settle in the refrigerator for a few hours before icing.

Crumb coat the cake and allow the coating to crust.

Tint the buttercream icing a light green using the food coloring gel paste.

Smooth the entire cake with a Viva paper towel, rubbing either a metal spatula or a fondant smoother over the paper towel to remove any spatula marks from the cake.

Pipe a ruffle on the bottom border with tip #124








Pipe a pearl border above the ruffle with tip #12









Place 1 bunch of hydrangeas on the bottom border. Place another on the opposite side of the cake. Add 1 rose to each side of the hydrangeas, so you'll have 2 roses next to each hydrangea. Add a hydrangea bunch to the top of the cake and put 1 rose on each side.

 Tint some gum paste a pale lavender with the purple gel paste color. Roll it out very thin to an almost transparent thickness. Create a bow for the cake, making the bow about 6" long. Create two tails for the bow. Place the bow behind the flowers, on top of the cake. Arrange the tails alongside the roses.

Arrange the gum paste rose leaves around the roses.

Make the ladybug with the cupcake. Frost it with pink buttercream icing and then draw a black line down the center. Pipe dots on the ladybug with tip #6. Place the ladybug on the cake in front of the flowers. Pipe a black circle where you want the ladybug's head, next to the body.

Place the gum paste #1 wherever you desire on the flower birthday cake.

Using tip #6, write your birthday message along the edge of the cake, opposite the flowers.