Probably my proudest creation thus far has been this pretty, pastel pink rose and pistachio cake, although it definitely isn't the most polished cake out there. I challenged myself to try to make buttercream flowers because thus far, decorating (especially with icing) has not quite been my forte. I definitely need more practice because the flowers are quite amatuerish, but I think the overall effect tied in quite nicely, no?
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| I made this cake, and the cupcakes for a tea party with some of my friends, hence the 'fancy' arrangement |
I noticed that the more I piped, the more melted my buttercream flowers seemed to become, and I think that has to do with the warmth of the hand that's gripping the piping bag making the icing soft. The trick in getting these buttercream flowers right, I think (mental note to self to take note for next attempt), is to use a stiffer-than-usual icing and to work quickly. Also, a lot of the tutorials I watched on YouTube used royal icing, but as I didn't have a big baking section in my local Sainsburys, I had to make do with whipping up my own buttercream icing. Who knows, maybe royal icing flowers hold up better?
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| Up close view of the buttercream flowers. |
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| Tons of these flowers around London. I think they're peonies but I can't be sure. |
I wasn't intending to, as I was just sick of piping roses and was just messing about with a different technique, but I think the darker pink flowers ended up looking a bit like peonies, no?
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| Cross section view. The green chunks are of course, chopped pistachios |
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| Without a turntable, the sides of my cake turns out very messy, but oh well. Even with a turntable I find it hard to get the sides perfectly smooth. |
If you're interested in trying it out, the recipe is below! No step-by-step tutorial on the flowers, I'm afraid, because I'm no expert myself, so you're better off watching some YouTube tutorials.
Ingredients
(this makes one layer, you need to double the ingredients to make two)
- 120 g butter (or margarine), softened
- 160 g caster sugar
- 3 tbsp rosewater (I used quite a lot because I wanted a very strong rose flavour, but feel free to reduce this your liking)
- 2 eggs
- 200 g self-raising flour
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 2 tbsp yoghurt (I used pure, Greek yoghurt because I was out of milk, but feel free to just use milk if you have that at home)
- Toasted, chopped pistachios (amount to your liking)
For the buttercream icing
- 240 g butter, softened
- 500 g icing sugar, sifted
- 1 tbsp rosewater
- Red food colouring (preferably gel as you don't want the icing too wet)
Method
- Preheat the oven to 180˚C/350˚F/gas 4 and line your baking tin(s) with baking paper.
- Cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy(it should turn lighter in colour).
- Add the eggs one by one, mixing after each addition.
- Stir in the rosewater.
- Sift the flour and baking powder into the wet mixture, then add milk and gently fold the mixture.
- Fold in the pistachios.
- Pour the mixture into the cake tins, and gently drop the cake tins a few times on your kitchen top to knock out excess air. Then bake for 20-25 minutes or until a toothpick/satay stick/chopstick inserted into the centre comes out clean. Remove the cake and leave to cool COMPLETELY. I cannot stress how important this is as your icing will slide off if the cake isn't completely cool. I usually leave it overnight to cool, or give it at least 2-3 hours.
- Once cool, cut off the domed tops, either with a cake slicer or a large, serrated knife. A bread knife usually does the trick for me.
For the buttercream
- Cream the butter, then gradually add and stir in the sugar until smooth and creamy.
- Add the rosewater, and then the red food colouring. How much to add is up to your own discretion as you may have different preferences on how vibrant you wish the icing to be. I wanted mine quite pastel, so I added about 2-3 drops for the base and the roses, then added a bit more for the peonies.
- Apply buttercream to top of first layer, then put second layer of cake on top. Then add buttercream to top and sides and smooth with a palette knife. A turntable makes this part much easier, but I lost mine and had to make do without.
- Pipe the flowers on a flower nail, then lift with scissors (I used special lifting scissors that were made for this purpose, but I suppose you could do the same with a regular pair of clean scissors) and place on cake.
