Hi...this is my first post. I'm brand new to cake decorating and am just finishing the first Wilton course. I have gone ahead of the instructor (who is slow as molasses) and taught myself roses, etc. I'd like to try teaching myself a tropical flower, as I am making a Luau themed cake for my sister this weekend. Can anyone explain or give a link of how to make any sort of flower that looks even remotely tropical?? Buttercream would be best, marzipan would be second best, but I've not yet really tried using the marzipan (willing to give it a shot though...worst that can happen is that they look horrible and then I will just eat them for snack, haha!)

Thanks in advance!

I know someone here has made hibiscus flowers using royal icing and doing a pansy, but with the larger lily nail. They were very pretty. But you'd really have to go ahead of the instructor and get into the course 2 stuff. I think it might be a little hard to do those types of flowers using buttercream, though you could do a frozen buttercream transfer of a tropical flower like this one I did

Me again..here is a picture of the royal icing hibiscus flowers I was talking about. Also if you go into the gallery and search for hibiscus, a lot of pretty cakes come up, might give you some ideas.

http://www.cakecentral.com/modules.php?name=coppermine&file=displayimage&meta=search&search=hibiscus&cat=0&pos=42&search=hibiscus

Here are directions for a royal or buttercream hibiscus, but unless you use a food dehydrator to dry them, I don't think they'll dry in time for this weekend.

This is from the Wilton Way of Decorating Volume 2. It is no longer in print. ( I only write this to give credit to the creators.)

same picture, higher quality

If you double click on the picture, you will be able to read the writing on it.

You can see some hibiscus in one of my cake photos.

You can do several things to make the flower lighter and easier, as well as a bit quicker to dry--although it really should sit to dry for at least 2-3 days.

After you pipe the petals into the lily nail, you can scoop out some of the heavy center with the thin handle of a small paintbrush. No need to put a wire in the center for the thick stamen--just pipe the stamen into the thinned out center using a large round tip--any one of #8-#12 will work. This also gives you a 100% edible flower. Pipe the stamen up the center and then pipe 5 small tips on the tip of the stamen using a tip #2. Sit the flower on it's bottom, still in the foil, to dry for awhile so the stamen stays pretty well upright. To facilitate drying, you can either prick little holes into the bottom of the foil before piping the flower, or you can peel back some of the foil on the very bottom after piping.

To get them dry faster, you can put them in an oven/microwave with only the light on, in a food dehydrator, or under a heat lamp.

Rae

Thanks so much!!! If they won't dry in time, then maybe I'll have to wait for another opportunity to try them...but we'll see. I might be totally wrong, but I think that I've heard somewhere that flowers dry faster if you have meringue (sp?) powder in the icing...is that true?