I was just looking at the White Flower Cake Shoppe and saw their fondant cakes are $15 a serving with a minimum of $500!!! That's incredible!! Does anyone really pay that? Amazing! 

http://www.cakecentral.com/gallery/i/3334246/beautiful-flowers#comment-1482790

http://www.cakecentral.com/gallery/i/3334245/beautiful-flowers

I made these..

Nice, Shelly42! Beautiful work! 

You can get an excellent video tutorial with a subscription ($30 a year) to My Cake School . com  (I spaced it out in case the URL is blocked).  I've watched it and it is very good.  It is called: How to Pipe Large Frosting Flowers

http://www.artycakes.co.uk/floral1.htm Check out this link 

WFCS work is very nice but Arty Cakes takes BC flowers to a whole other stratosphere. IMHO. Its just breath taking, wish I could do those flowers.

Those buttercream flowers are also here.

http://www.amazon.com/dp/0778804771/?tag=cakecentral-20

Hi everyone! Just thought I would pop in and introduce myself. My name is Marianne Carroll and I am co-owner of The White Flower Cake Shoppe in Cleveland, Ohio. My business partner Lauren Bozich and I started the company from a tiny kitchen 9 years ago, and currently own 4 locations as well as an online school that we launched last year due to an overwhelming demand to share our buttercream skills. Before we launched our school, we had countless emails, facebook, and instagram messages asking us to create tutorials on our cakes, specifically the flowers that we are known for. It was a tough decision to share our secrets, especially because it is part of our brand and what makes us unique. I don't have to explain to a lot of you the sacrifice and hard work it takes to maintain and run an actual profitable bakery, the overhead expenses with 30 plus employees, the rent expenses, the cost of goods etc...not to mention I have a sweet little 3 year old daughter that demands a lot of my time as well(the most important thing)! So creating and maintaining an online school was definitely a lot of hard work and took (and still takes) quite a bit of time, money and expertise to do considering it was a lot of pressure to make sure these were informative and up to our standards.

I read a lot of comments about the cost of our tutorials, so let me explain. We actually tried to get a deal with Craftsy, but they turned us down saying no one wanted to learn buttercream skills....lol. Fondant is great, but let's be honest, it's all about a good buttercream frosting that makes a cake taste good! We priced our tutorials based on what Craftsy currently charges their customers, and run specials time to time, and offer discounts to previous customers for new tutorials that come out. We are launching 6 more in the next month or two, including a Buttercream Wedding cake tutorial which will be awesome!!

You can learn these flowers from other sources, but we do this 24/7, 7 days a week, and have it broken down to a science. We currently have sold hundreds of tutorials all over the world, and for us two ladies who started out of an apartment kitchen with no money, and big dreams, this has been the pinnacle of our career. The fact that our skills are in demand is a true honor to us, so thank you so much to all of you that follow us on social media, you brighten our day and keep us going!!!

Heres a few tips to help with our signature flowers:

The tips we use are Ateco brand 402 and 403, and we use a swiss meringue buttercream recipe that we have perfected over the years. We use Americolor gels to achieve our vivid colors. You must make sure the room is chilled to at least 67-68 degrees when working with buttercream. 

I joined this site to help in any way I can with advice on cake decorating . Lauren and I have seen it all at this point-started our own business with NO business experience, faced an economic crisis in 2008 that completely changed our business, tried every kind of cake from sculpted fondant grooms cakes to 7 tier wedding cakes, made countless mistakes along the way, but at the end of the day, teaching and helping other people follow their dreams has been our biggest success. 

Peace, Love and Buttercream!!!

Sincerely, 

Marianne Carroll

www.whiteflowercake.com

Marianne,

Your cakes are beautiful, a real work of art!! I use SMBC, but find it's too soft for the flowers to hold. The buttercreams with shortening seem to hold better, but I don't use them, because I do all natural cakes. Do you stiffen your SMBC any way? I don't know how to do that!

Thank you for sharing some tips,

nancy

Hi, Marianne.

Welcome to CC.   Thank you for sharing your story and what a story, it is!   

Fondant serves a purpose, but I've yet to find any brand or kind that I want to eat, so I'm a buttercream girl all the way! 

I'm a huge fan of your beautiful cakes and am glad you're offering classes on how to achieve that beautiful look.  Pricing, be it a class, per serving or per cake, is a strategy that everyone needs to determine for themselves and what works best for their business model.  Again, I'm glad you offer classes and it's wonderful to hear, and great that you let us know, that specials are offered from time to time. 

I hope you stick around and join in the conversations here at CC.

Hi Marianne,

  I am an avid fan of the work you gals do at Whiteflower.  I happily discovered your tutorials just the other day.  Your buttercream work is unique and fabulous.  Craftsy is wrong about people not wanting to learn buttercream.  Maybe so many people do fondant because it is easier (in a way) and so many people want instant gratification now.  Anyway, I am thrilled that you are offering your techniques.  I saw the flash sale notice on Facebook and just have to decide which class or classes to start with. Love you ladies!  Thank you for sharing!

Angie Rotier

Marianne - So glad to have you here. As I mentioned above, I love looking at your cakes. May I ask a question, and if you can't I understand completely. You mentioned that you use Ateco tips 402 and 403 for those big beautiful flowers. Do you find those tips different from the wilton 403 & 402?  I would love to sign up for an online tutorial and have a couple of questions before I decide which one(s) I want. Should I call the shop to ask or go to the website? Thank you so very much.

if I remember correctly, the white flower cake shoppe ladies have a tutorial on their website.

White Flower Cake Shoppe just came out with a Craftsy class. It is a pretty basic class, but you get the recipe for their buttercream and learn how to make their signature flowers.

I took the class and it's wonderful.  Unfortunately everyone is having difficulty finding an ATECO 402 tip.  The Cake Shoppe does have some available to purchase on their website, but they are only available to folks in the US.  Does anyone know where I can find one in Canada?

I love piping buttercream!!  Having purchased the flower piping tutorial from the White Flower Shoppe ages ago, I had to use the Wilton tips as I couldn't find the proper Ateco tips.  Now that they are sold in their shop I'll go purchase a couple. 

 I'm happy to support the business and the creators of fun and interesting new designs and techniques.  Sometimes you get the best results by paying for the real thing.