Apparently piping flowers using royal icing is a dying art so I am very pleased I am learning how to do this in my classes. Most cake decorators model them out of flower paste now, which is very time-consuming and these flowers can be piped quickly and are still very effective.

piped flowers

Today we piped pansies and roses and learned how to pipe using two or three colours at a time by putting stripes of different coloured royal icing into the piping bag. Once again they were piped onto cellophane so they can be removed once they have dried and put onto cakes or sugarpaste discs. The pansies weren’t too difficult to do and look really good with the three colours.

pansies

The roses were very hard to do and mine don’t look anything like roses! Will have to practise much more as it is difficult to get the icing nozzle at the right angle for each layer of petals.

my rose

And this final photo is of the rose my tutor piped – just to show you how pretty and delicate they can look when they’re done properly!

tutors rose

After half term I have to take a fruit cake and we are going to learn how to marzipan and cover the cake – thank goodness as this is one thing I haven’t had any success with so far!