Adhering Silk Flowers To Crusting Buttercream

Decorating By MsRose Updated 31 Jan 2019 , 12:40am by SandraSmiley

MsRose Cake Central Cake Decorator Profile
MsRose Posted 29 Jan 2019 , 9:33pm
post #1 of 4

I have completed the trial 4 tier wedding cake a few days ago (never done a tiered cake before), dowelled and stacked and happy as Larry that it was dead straight and held the weight very well.  No dramas there!  bowtie  WOOHOO!!

I did not decorate the trial cake as I was more concerned with the doweling and stacking, so I needed to make sure I could do this.  I have to travel 8 hours to Canberra with the individual cakes (which will be stacked and finished off at venue) for my son's wedding.  Now, I am going to do a crusting buttercream that I know holds very well (because I have used this recipe before! blush) which has no butter in it, only high ratio shortening, the icing sugar, and Pavlova mix.  This truly crusts great where I can actually lift a cake with my hands and no indentation is left on the cake.  The kids have chosen the silk flowers they want and the bride-to-be wants it cascading from top to bottom.  I need to affix the flowers after I stacked the cake obviously but because it is a crusting buttercream, PLEASE PLEASE give me some ideas of the best and easiest way I can affix the flowers to this crusting buttercream!  There are several large roses and there are many small roses which will be placed in between the large ones.

Originally I was planning on sticking all the stems of the flowers into straws or that spaghetti with the hole in the center, then sticking that directly into the cake.  But my mind kept wandering about......surely if you go and stick things into a hardened frosting (crusting buttercream), it will crack all around where you insert something, and your cake will end up a nice big fat mess??  scream    Then I thought, if I was able to insert things into the crusting buttercream and so many flowers are pulled out of the cake when the catering people at the venue cut it, it will be covered in holes!!  I will not be able to go fill a heap of holes in a cake before the cake is served.  Am I overthinking this?  

Ideas, Ideas please!!

Thank you in advance!  Very much appreciated. kissing_closed_eyes

Ps.  If you don't see responses from me, that is because my comments don't post for some reason. weary 

3 replies
SandraSmiley Cake Central Cake Decorator Profile
SandraSmiley Posted 29 Jan 2019 , 11:51pm
post #2 of 4

MsRose, I like to arrange the flowers into small bouquets, which will blend together when positioned on the cake.  For example, take three of four larger blooms, plus filler flowers and foliage and wire them together.  Make as many posies as necessary to cascade from top to bottom.  Use a straw of the appropriate size for each posey/bouquet.  This method limits the number of holes in the finished cake.  

These bouquets are not connected, but each one is mounted in one straw, and they could have been arranged to cascade.  These flowers are all gum paste, so much heavier than silk blossoms.Adhering Silk Flowers To Crusting Buttercream

kakeladi Cake Central Cake Decorator Profile
kakeladi Posted 31 Jan 2019 , 12:20am
post #3 of 4

Not knowing what Pavloa mix is it's hard to advise you.   I did 90% of my decorating in b/'cream.  It does not dry rock hard and does not crack if breached - like pushing in a straw.  Sandra's idea of making poisies if good.  It does lessen how many straws one would need to use and could actually look nicer than individually placing the flowers.  OR you could pipe dots/blobs of b'cream over the finished icing to hold the flowers on.  I was told many yrs ago that if you pipe an open circle (no matter how small) w/b'cream that the circle acts like a suction to help hold the flower in place. 

SandraSmiley Cake Central Cake Decorator Profile
SandraSmiley Posted 31 Jan 2019 , 12:40am
post #4 of 4

That is an awesome tip, piping a circle to hold the flowers, kakeladi!  I will  make a note of that!

Quote by @%username% on %date%

%body%