Buttercream Flower Cupcakes

I also made these cupcake for Payton's 1st Birthday party. Amy had found the inspiration on Pinterest here, and I just did my best to make them look like the picture!
I used a large petal tip to decorate them, tip #127 with butter cream frosting. I colored half of my frosting a pale pink and the other half ivory. To create the rose flower you start at the center of the cupcake and hold the tip straight up and down, with the thicker edge of the tip pointed down. It helped me to hold the cupcake in one hand and the frosting bag in the other. For the first petal you circle it around to make just a small opening at the center, like a real rose would look at the center. Then you begin to add petals around, by tilting the tip out the petals will form a more opened looking rose and vice versa.
The other flower is formed by holding the same tip flat (horizontally) against the cupcake top with the thin edge of the tip facing out. You pipe about 6 or 7 petals around the outer edge, then 4 on top of those in the center. I have included the buttercream frosting recipe below. You use a lot of frosting to frost these cupcakes, I made 24 cupcakes and used almost all of the frosting that I made from the recipe below.

Buttercream Frosting:

• 1 cup butter (2 sticks), softened
• 1 cup solid white vegetable shortening
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 4 tablespoons heavy cream or milk
• 2 lbs confectioners' sugar, sifted (about 8 cups)

Using a stand mixer with the paddle attachment cream together the butter, shortening, vanilla, and heavy cream until smooth. Add the sifted confectioners' sugar about 1 to 2 cups at a time. Scraping down the sides of the bowl as needed. Once all of the sugar is added mix at medium high speed for 1 to 2 minutes. If the frosting seems too stiff add more heavy cream 1/2 tablespoon at a time, it will thin out very easily. However, you will want this frosting to be stiff for piping the flowers onto the cupcakes.

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Gumpaste Flowers

This weekend we celebrated with my sister-in-law at her baby shower. We will be welcoming sweet baby Avery into the family sometime in October! I made this cake for the shower to coordinate with her beautiful nursery decor by Caden Lane. I made the flowers from gumpaste and some rhinestones (that were not edible) for the centers. I frosted the cake with butter cream frosting using a sky blue food coloring and piped on the branches using frosting tips #3 and #5. I also used tip #5 to pipe the beading around the bottom of each cake. You can follow the steps below to make the gumpaste flowers that I used on this cake.

 

Supplies: 

• Wilton Ready to use Gumpaste
• Rhinestones
• Cookie Cutters (found these at Hobby Lobby)
• Rolling pin
• Thin Foam Pad (wilton)
• Gumpaste Ball tool
• Paint brush
• Parchment Paper or mat for your work surface
• Plastic Wrap
• Shortening
• Pink food coloring

Take a portion of the gumpaste out of the bag and knead it to soften it. You can rub some shortening on your hands to keep the gumpaste from sticking to them. Drop a small amount of food coloring into the center of the gumpaste and knead the ball of gumpaste until the color is even. You can always add more food coloring to make a brighter color, but begin with a small amount. 

Next roll out the gumpaste onto your work surface until it is very thin. 

Choose your desired sizes of cookie cutters and begin cutting out the shapes you will need. I would recommend only working on one large flower at a time since the gumpaste dries out very quickly. 

You will need to work quickly and use the plastic wrap to cover the gumpaste that you aren't working with to keep it from drying out.

Starting with the largest flower place each piece on the foam mat and using the ball tool gently make a circle motion on each petal. The gumpaste will begin to take shape and thin out. Make sure not to rub it so thin that you make a hole. The edges of the petals should start to curl upward.

As you finish each flower you can begin to attach them together. Take the paint brush and dip it into a very small amount of water. Brush the centers of the flowers with a small amount of water and place the smaller flowers on top, pressing gently.

Once you have the smallest flower on top the rhinestone will go into the center. I waited to attach the rhinestones until I was placing the flowers onto the cake. I used a small amount of butter cream frosting to hold the rhinestones into place. I also used butter cream frosting to hold the flowers in place on the cake.

I also made rose cupcakes to match the roses on the Caden Lane bedding. I used the frosting tip 2D to make the rose. You create the rose by starting in the center of the cupcake and circling around to the outside. You can make the edges of the rose a lighter pink color by putting a small amount of lighter color pink frosting into the bag first. Then place a darker pink on top. Then you can add leaves to the sides using a leaf tip, I used a #68.