Hello to all from a total newbie! (though I've been lurking for quite some time)

I'm planning to bake and decorate a cake for Easter brunch on Sunday. Since I'm super new at this I'm using a box mix, and it will be a simple round cake with two layers, using buttercream icing. I'll probably do vanilla or yellow for the flavor of the cake itself.

I'm self teaching using the Wilton course books at home (there are no classes near me ). I basically plan to follow the idea on page 31 of the "Course 1" book. Except, I'll use a light, pastel green as the main icing color. But my flowers will be pink with a light pink center.

Anyways, the book says to make the flowers before icing the cake and let them dry. It also says to use Meringue Powerder to speed up the drying.

I plan to use butter cream icing for both the main icing job as well as the flowers ans the rope decoration at the bottom of hte cake, just different consistencies. I guess my main questions are:

1. How long should i let the flowers dry before trying to tack them on the cake?

2. Should I make the consistency of the main cake icing slightly softer than that for the flowers?

Any thoughts are gratefully appreciated! Hopefully someday I'll be able to help someone else out!

Barb

you could make the flowers ahead, letting them dry overnight. pipe them out onto some parchment. the cake icing needs to be thin consistency, the flowers and shell border medium consistency

thank you thank you thank you!

hi all,

Ok so I was going to make my own icing for this, but hubby talked me into just buying a tub of already-made buttercream icing so I could just tint and go.

at first this sounded like a great idea right? It wasnt until I got home taht I realized I have no idea what type of consistency the tub of buttercream has.

Well I think it is a thin consistency, because when I pipe the flowers, the icing tends to move up with the tip as I move up from the parchment paper. It seemed to get worse overtime, I wonder if it's the heat from my palm warming up the icing?

Is there any way I can stiffen the consistency to "medium"?

Thanks,

Barb

It has been my experience that store-bought tub frosting does not hold up too well for flowers. Do you have enough time to make it from scratch? Homemade will taste better, too. (I hate the taste of store-bought frosting.)

I have made buttercream roses on my cream and chocolate mother's day cake,i made them like 5 days in advance so they were really dry,i could almost pick them up with my hands.The consistency for flowers has to be stiff or else it'll be difficult to pipe or to keep it's shape.

Sometimes I put my piping bag in the refrigerator or freezer for a few minutes, and that stiffens the icing up enough to pipe a flower. Whenever it starts getting too soft, just put the bag in the frig for a few (or set it on an icepack).

thanks all,

I did go out to the store to try and get ingredients to make my own icing. However there was no meringue powder! and i had no more time to go to the cake supply shope that was farther out as it was closing in 15 minutes and it would have taken me longer to get there.

So I'm out. I'm so bummed! argh why did I listen to hubby?

I'll have to try putting the icing in the freezer for a few minutes and hope that works.

thanks!

You don't need merinque powder for icing. if the canned icing seems thin, just add some p.sugar to it and stir it in really well. This will thicken it up to a more stiff consistency.

thx indydeby.

I assume by "p.sugar" you mean pure surgar? Sorry I'm so clueless.

I put the icing in the freezer for about 5-10 minutes and when I took it out it was much better. Probably still not what I would hope for, but at least I was able to make a bunch of shapes that resemble flowers.

Thanks for tip for future reference!

p.sugar = powdered sugar. sorry 'bout that!

that's ok. chalk it up to my "newbiness" that I even had to ask.

"flowers" are made and drying. Cake is baked and cooling. All is well. Now I just have to frost it tomorrow morning and attach flowers.

If I can I'll snap a picture and post in the gallery. It'll probably totally suck, but it'll be fun for posterity.

have a good night,

Barb