Buttercream flowers

Buttercream flowers are petals and blossoms piped from icing and used to decorate cakes. University 4-H manuals describe two ways to make them. Flat surface flowers, such as the sweet pea, are piped directly on the cake with a flower tip and stiff buttercream for the petals and thin icing for the calyx. Flower nail flowers, such as the half rose, are piped on a small flat disk and moved to the cake once finished.

The petal tips used include numbers 103 and 104, with round tip 3 for details and leaf tips for foliage. Flowers with upright petals, like roses, need stiff icing, while medium consistency suits flowers with petals that lie flat.

A firm icing made with meringue powder lets flowers be air dried for 24 hours, though drop flowers can be handled after four hours. They can then be kept ahead of time and placed on cakes.