I always look at store-bought cakes with their intricate designs and wonder how much training and practice it takes to achieve such artistry.  Last month, we celebrated my son’s third birthday, and I set out to make and decorate his cake for the first time.  Given the fact that it was my first second attempt at cake decorating, and I had to ensure all of the ingredients were vegan, I was content with the final result.

One of easiest ways to transform a cake is to enhance it with flowers.  If you ever get a chance to take a Wilton Method Class, their Decorating Basics course will teach you a variety of flower-making techniques.  Some can easily be achieved with the appropriate Decorating Tip.

These Drop Flowers were easy once we practiced.  Once you get the hang of the Star Flower, you can turn your hand with a consistent squeeze on the decorating bag for a pretty Swirled Flower (my favorite of the two).

They say practice makes perfect…

Getting better…

Getting some tips on creating shells…Bag should actually be at 45 degrees

Once we got the basics down, we ventured onto more textured flowers including the Pompom Flowers and the Shaggy Mums.  Wilton offers Flower Nail Templates which makes it easy to create flowers that can then be transferred onto your cake.

My first attempt…

You can quickly decorate a cupcake by using a 1M tip…

I could have extended these shaggy petals just a bit more…but overall…success!

The finished product!

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