How-To Make a Petal Cake

Learning something new... I decided to try the "petal effect" on the side of a cake. I had a birthday cake to make for our favorite babysitter, and I had carte blanche to do whatever I wanted on it. So, this is what I tried.

This white cake was actually the trial, because I was impatient, again, and the cake fell. So, I decided to just use shorty here to practice.

This was the actual birthday cake. I'm not sure that I don't like the practice one better.
I have to tell you that for how pretty this cake is, it's surprisingly easy to do! It took me less than an hour to decorate this cake!

What You Need:
Cake, baked and cooled
   (I used my Rich Chocolate Cake Recipe, but you can always just 'doctor' up a cake mix.)
Icing, about 4-5 cups for an 8-9" two-layer cake
   (I used my Chocolate Swiss Meringue Buttercream)
Large Round Tip and Spatula
   (I used Wilton Tip #1A, you could also use Tip #12)
Optional:
 For the Daisy on top: Tip #127, For the Writing: Tip #3

Begin by spreading a thin layer of icing on the cake. You don't have to be too precise here because you will cover it up. But you do want to ice the cake anyway, just so that you have a better surface to stick the decorating icing to, and so that you won't see it as much if you make small mistakes.
(Click this link for my tutorial on how to ice a cake.)

Then, using the round tip, pipe dots on to the side of the cake the same size as the end of the spatula. I found that for a 3" tall cake, that meant 4 dots.
(To best pipe a dot, hold the bag/tip straight out from the cake, so that the tip and the cake's surface are at a 90-degree angle from one another. squeeze, without moving the bag, until the dot gets as large as you would like, then stop squeezing before you pull the bag away.)

To create the petal effect, wipe the excess icing off of the back of the spatula, then press and spread/smooth one half of the dot away to the right (or left, if you're left-handed).
**Remember to wipe the spatula off each time, or you will get funny marks on the next dot!

Continue around the sides of the cake, until the petals meet. (That last column can be a little tricky.)

I'm not always wild about the petal effect on the top of the cake, so I chose to try to make a daisy on the top. I didn't quite get this as right as I wanted to. I used tip #127.
Here's a link to Wilton's Daisy Technique. Next time, I'll do better!

Either way, I do love the way the sides look. It's so pretty. I have a feeling we'll be seeing this technique lots.

Click the Links Below to See:Other Basic Cake Decorating Techniques
Recipes for the Cake and Icings
My Other Favorite Way to Decorate the Sides of Cakes (Sprinkles!!)

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