What To Know About How To Make Buttercream Flowers

Whether you’re an experienced baker or just starting out, mastering new cake decorating skills can feel a bit intimidating. Buttercream flowers are a classic, beautiful way to decorate cakes and cupcakes and knowing how to make buttercream flowers can elevate your baked goods and make them extra special.

Here, we’re breaking down why we love buttercream flowers, what you’ll need to make them, a step-by-step guide for how to make buttercream flowers, and more. Whether you’re a total beginner or someone looking to take the next step to improve your decorating skills, we’re here to help you pipe confidently!

Why We Love Making Buttercream Flowers

1. They’re Versatile: You can create such a wide variety of buttercream flowers to decorate your cakes and other treats. Customize the color, size, shape, and overall style to fit the theme of the occasion.

2. They’re Classic: A buttercream flower cake is such a classic (think about the bakery cakes you saw as a kid). This kind of decoration is a great choice for weddings, anniversaries, and other events like these.

3. They Taste Great: Because they’re made of rich, creamy buttercream, buttercream flowers are a cake decoration that people love to eat.

The Essentials You’ll Need to Make Buttercream Flowers

Just like with other cake decorating skills, you want to make sure you have the right tools to make buttercream flowers on hand so that you’re setting yourself up for success. Here’s what you’ll need:

• Buttercream Frosting: The type of buttercream you use for flowers needs to be a good consistency for piping and whipped until smooth. American buttercream frosting, Swiss meringue buttercream, and Italian meringue buttercream are all great options when you’re making buttercream flowers. You just want to make sure your buttercream isn't too loose or soft. You want it to be firm to hold its shape. Those of us with hot hands may need to take piping breaks so as to not melt the buttercream!

• Piping Bags: You need a separate piping bag for each color of frosting you’re going to use.

• Petal-Shaped Piping Tips: Use different petal tips, leaf tips, and star tips to create a variety of styles of flowers and other decorative elements.

• Piping Nail: This nail helps you build and shape your flowers.

• Food Coloring for the Buttercream: Gel-based colors will be more vibrant and won’t affect the consistency of the buttercream like other kinds of food coloring can.

• Parchment Paper: Cut your parchment paper into smaller squares so that they’re easier to work with. You’ll use the squares to help you transfer the flowers.

• Offset Spatula: While offset spatulas are truly a baking workhorse, for the purposes of making buttercream flowers, you’ll use them to move the flowers from the nail and place them on the cake.

Here’s How to Make Buttercream Flowers

1. Make the Buttercream

The first thing you'll need to do before you can start making buttercream flowers or any other buttercream decorative elements, you’ll need to make a batch of buttercream. Decide on your color scheme and use gel food coloring to dye the buttercream. Make sure the buttercream is a piping consistency, but will still hold its shape once it’s piped. If it seems too soft or collapses in on itself when you pipe, put the frosting in the fridge for about 10-15 minutes to let it firm up before trying again. Stiff buttercream frosting will create sharper lines than soft frosting.

2. Fill the Piping Bags

You’ll need to fill one piping bag with each color of buttercream. Make sure you plan ahead and select the right piping tip. Really think through your plan and organize the colors and piping tips accordingly.

3. Grab Your Piping Nail and a Square of Parchment Paper

Place a small dab of buttercream on the piping nail and attach the parchment paper. This will keep everything secure as you pipe your flower.

4. Start Piping the Flower

When making buttercream flowers, you’re going to want to start with the center of the flower. Use a small, round piping tip to create the center of the flower, which will act as the base of the flower and is the spot you’ll build your petals from.

5. Pipe the Flower Petals

Angle the piping bag 45 degrees and make sure the wide end of the petal tip that you’re using is at the center of the flower nail and the narrow end of the tip away. Turn the flower nail as you pipe petals. If you’re making buttercream roses, you’ll want to add smaller petals close together near the center of the flower and add larger petals the further out from the center that you get.

For other flowers, you may need to use a star-shaped piping tip to create different flowers. If you’re planning on decorating something for an event, you may want to practice with different piping tips and flower shapes so you know what kind of effect you’ll get from all different types of buttercream flowers.

The best part about practicing is that you can very easily scrape the buttercream off the flower nail and add it back into your piping bag if you’d like, meaning you don’t need to waste the buttercream in order to try a few different flower shapes. Plus, you may find that it takes a bit of practice to get the hang of things.

6. Pipe Leaves, If You’d Like (Optional)

While you can certainly just make buttercream flowers and leave it at that, filling out the display with some piped buttercream leaves can add more dimension to your design. You’ll again want to hold a piping bag filled with green icing at a 45-degree angle. Then, quickly pull away from the flowers and release to create small leaves.

Again, feel free to practice to create different shapes. The more you practice, the easier it will become!

7. Chill the Piped Buttercream Flowers

After you’re done piping your flower, gently slide the parchment square off of the flower nail and place it on a tray or baking sheet. When you fill the tray with the remaining flowers, pop the piped flowers in the fridge for about 10-15 minutes to chill the buttercream and let the firm up. This step will make it easier to work with the flowers later on, so make sure you don’t skip it.

8. Arrange the Buttercream Flowers on Your Cake

Once you’ve let the flowers chill down, pull the baking sheet or tray out of the fridge and use your offset spatula to carefully transfer them from the parchment squares to the cake. Think through your design ahead of time so you don’t have to spend time deliberating while decorating (and to avoid any misplaced flowers that you find you can’t easily move later). You can pipe some additional leaves or other decorative elements right onto the cake to complete your design.

Basic Tips for Making Buttercream Flowers

• Practice, Practice, Practice: There’s nothing wrong with being a beginner. You may find that your first several flowers don’t look exactly the way you’d like them to. That’s okay! It can take a lot of practice to help familiarize yourself with the feel of piping a flower and use a few different styles to see what might be possible.

• Don’t Let the Buttercream Get Too Warm: Although you want to make sure your buttercream is soft enough to pipe and shape, if it’s too warm, it won’t hold its shape. If you think your buttercream is too warm, pop it in the fridge for 10-15 minutes to let it firm up, then try again.

• Try Combining Colors for Added Effect: Once you get a feel for how to make buttercream flowers, consider layering two different shades of buttercream in the same piping bag. This will give your petals more dimension and pop.

• Prep Your Flowers Ahead of Time: While it might seem like you’d need to make your flowers when you’re ready to decorate your cake, that’s not quite true. You can absolutely make buttercream flowers ahead of time, then store them in an airtight container in the freezer until you’re ready to decorate. Thaw them slowly in the fridge before placing them on your frosted cake.

FAQs

• Can I make buttercream flowers with store-bought buttercream?

  You definitely can make buttercream flowers with store-bought buttercream, but it’s not going to be as good as using homemade. With homemade buttercream frosting, you’ll be able to make sure the frosting is the right consistency, meaning it’ll be easier to work with when piping flowers and other decorations. You'll also be able to control the flavor and color palette and can use your favorite frosting recipe instead of being forced to go with whatever's at the store.

• Can I make multi-colored buttercream flowers?

  Yes! There are a few ways to create multi-colored buttercream flowers. You can add a very thin layer of gel food coloring to the inside of your piping bag before filling it with buttercream or you can add two different colors or shades of buttercream to one piping bag to create a swirl of color. If you use two shades of the same color, it’ll be more ombré. Make sure you remove any air pockets when filling your piping bags or you'll end up with a mess when you try to pipe your petals.

• I’d rather just pipe buttercream flowers directly onto the cake. Can that be done?

  You can pipe simple buttercream flowers directly onto a cake you’re decorating, but it’s a good idea to use a flower nail and parchment paper square, particularly if you’re just starting out. It’ll give you more control over the flower.

Flowers just might be the perfect finishing touch to your cake design, so knowing how to make beautiful buttercream flowers can be a useful skill. Start small with your designs and make them more elaborate and intricate as your skills progress. Don’t be afraid to practice until you feel confident in your piping abilities. Whether you’re a brand-new baker feeling like you might be in a little over your head or you’re an experienced baker looking to expand your decorating skill set, knowing how to make buttercream flowers is sure to come in handy.

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