Defying Gravity: Attaching Flowers to the SIDE of a Cake

Hands down, the question I get asked more than any other, is “How do you get your flowers to stick to the SIDE of the cake?!”

Is it sorcery? Ah, no. Toothpicks? Nope. Glue? Eww, no.

Its much, much simpler.

Drop the Base

One of the critical elements of attaching flowers, is keeping the weight down. Large, heavy flowers just will NOT stay stuck! That being said though, you can still use oversize flowers, but they work best on the ledge between cake layers, rather than the side of the cake.

Most of the tutorials you will see, teach you to pipe a big, thick base on which to build your flower, which can then be lifted off, and placed onto your cake.

Piping flowers the Viva La Buttercream way is a bit different. Instead of piping a base, I recommend piping your flowers straight to parchment, keeping them low profile, light in weight, and able to be frozen.

Which brings me to the next crucial step.

Chill Out Man

Once you have piped your flowers, move them to a freezer safe container, and place in the freezer, uncovered, overnight.

Why? Well not only does this chill and firm your flowers, it also pulls some of the moisture out of your Buttercream, making them lighter still in weight, and less likely to sag once they return to room temperature. Overnight is ideal, but you will need a minimum of an hour for flowers for the side of a cake.

You can actually prepipe your flowers up to 3 MONTHS ahead! Pop them in the freezer, but make sure they are well covered. For a freezing time of more than a few days. cover your flowers, or they will get freezer burn.

From this point, just pipe a small blob of Buttercream, peel your flowers from the backing parchment, and attach your flowers wherever you want them.

Stuck on You

Cool! Flowers on a cake! How do I make them stay there?!

Honestly, in good conditions, if your flowers managed to stay log enough for you to turn your back, you’re probably ok.

If its very warm, your flowers are heavy, or you’ve hit too many speed humps on the way to the party, you could have problems. In such cases, keep your cake in the fridge as long as you can before display or delivery, and ideally, keep it in air conditioning if possible.

At the end of the day, remember this is frosting we’re talking about! If you want flowers to outlast civilisation, look into Sugar flowers. While not as tasty, they are mildly more hardy.

3 Things to Remember

* Pipe your flowers without a thick base, directly to parchment squares, to keep the weight down

* Chill your flowers in the freezer, uncovered overnight. If you want to store them for longer, make sure they are covered to avoid freezer burn.

* Keep your cake cool! A hot cake will fall apart, regardless of how you decorate it! Be kind to dessert, don’t leave them outside or in the sun. That’s just harsh man.

Have you defied Buttercream gravity? Share your Buttercream creations with us!

Viva La Buttercream xx