I've had my first ever bakery job for 3 weeks now, and we get a lot of orders for cakes with "flowers". The customer doesn't care or doesn't know what they want. So...

I was wondering what some of your go-to flowers are...what flower do you use that quick and beautiful, either buttercream or fondant. I'd really love to know. I fell like I am stuck on the same old daisy pattern! I need some help to get out of the rut!!!!!!!

I like to make fondant roses. I also like to make Petunias out of RI. Mums are the ones I like to make out of BC.

Roses, rose tip/round tip daisies, mums, drop flowers, hibiscus, dafadils all work good in BC and were very quick for me.

hi, i love to make the rose.. i can make it pretty fast.. i like to use the violets in buttercream, also . with these roses.. or the mum.. for the fall... i love the daisies too. i usually like to make a bigger flower.. then the samll ones to go along with it.. like rosebuds.. sweetpeas, etc.. i like to make the flower that goes along with the persons birthday month.. carnations are easy to make.. hth i just love making them all.. i love the pansy.. i could keep on and on.. ha! if you know all these. then , practice at home.. then show off at work..

The rose, the rosebud.

Pipe a fat, long (like an inch and a half long) tapering 'shell' of icing just with a star tube--cover it with light purple drop flowers--pipe a contrast color for the center dots--viola you got a pretty little bunch of lavender.

I dearly love piped lily of the valley--it's just squirt & go.

Congrats on the job.

Here's what it might look like:

Sunflowers! I love sunflowers in the fall! I use tip 67 the v leaf one and then the grass tip they are quick and easy!

Petunias!..Is not common and is not as widely used as the rose.
Edna

I should have mentioned...I am the only decorator at the bakery and my boss who's great books tons of cakes...I worked 16hrs today...did 15 cakes. I hate that I can't spend the time I want to on my cakes. But the biggest thing I hate is that she doesn't charge very much for her cakes so every time I get really into a cake...i.e. flowers she always stops by to remind me not to do too much for the price she charged. Most of the cakes are sheetcakes I think they can be boring...I need simple quick flowers to jazz them up.

I love the ideas ya'll are posting...thank you so much!

They didn't teach the lily of the valley until the year after I took my classes...at least in my area...I will look for an old book! Thanks!

BC rose and half-rose; rosebud. You can make the half-rose and the rosebud right on the cake so they are quick-n-fast.

I love the blossom set. I use those ALL the time. I also like ribbon roses.

Jen

The ribbon roses are popular and quick
fondant diasy also very popular

Oh, and the fondant calla lily is very eye-catching and classy. People really like that one. Also quick to put together. Keep some stamens on hand.....

http://www.wilton.com/technique/Lily-of-the-Valley

I love Mums. I think they are beautiful!

I've been doing a lot of Duff-style roses lately. They're pretty quick to do.

I like ribbon roses too! I like the calla lily too and think its easy and quick to make, but I have trouble arranging them to where I don't think they looked like I just plopped them on the cake. Maybe its just me

Since I routinely keep 20-30 cases of gumpaste flowers of all varieties on hand, whatever I get an order for. Break out the airbrush and 10 minutes later, done.

I work in a fast paced bakery also. When I start getting bored with flowers...my favorite to make is the Iris. I especially like it because you can do it in blue. It is as fast as making an arrangement of roses.

I also like Lily of the Valley. I use it a lot for religious cakes.

BCJean.....is that a dvd you made yourself?

when your working for someone else in their bakery, you really cant spend the time youd like to, to decorate the cakes. imagine if you spend one hour on one cake then that cake needs to have one hour of your hourly pay added to it. So you really need to do quick flowers directly on the cake. yes it gets boring to do the same thing over and over but the customers only get to see their cake. roses are good any time of year, spring time, you can do daffodils, pansies, daisys, in the summer, hibiscus, daisys, sunflowers, fall, mums, sunflowers, bachelor buttons. Christmas, holly, poinsettia, string of light bulbs, Xmas trees. do a search on sheet cakes and make a note of some designs, theres plenty of ideas in the galleries. The bakery i work at allows me to add a decorator charge perhaps you could talk to the owner about that.

BCJ, what tip do you use to make the iris?

So I've never worked at a bakery, but what about gumpaste daisies? You could make tons in different sizes in advance, and throw them on the cakes when needed?