All,

I was just wondering what you do. When you have to make a cake with big flowers that would do fine in buttercremam (like roses, carnations, mums, bachelor buttons) do you do them in royal and pick them off before serving, or do you do them in buttercream and just cut through them?

I'm trying to decide in general what the best way to go is.

Thanks!

if i have the time i do buttercream, but time hasn't been on my side lately, so i make royal icing flowers days in advance for when things get really busy.
i guess it all depends on if you have the time.

I prefer buttercream flowers. Royal Icing just gets to hard and I feel like its a waste of icing and ingredients. I want something I can eat so I make all my flowers in buttercream

I freeze them for easier transfer to the cake.

how funny, my husband says the same thing about flowers...he wants something he can eat!!

I do most of my flowers in buttercream, but do make flowers in royal to use as a back up flower in case I don't have time to make the flowers for a cake. I prefer the taste of buttercream, but sometimes time doesn't permit for me to do the flowers in it, especially how my hubby has been volunteering me lately. I don't mind making cakes or cupcakes for his job, but he usually doesn't get home until around 8 p.m. and will tell me that he wants to take a cake to work tomorrow. That is when he either gets a simply decorated cake or one with my royal flowers on it.

I store my buttercream flowers in an airtight container. I actually let them sit in the airtight container until the day I need the cake. Then I would let the flowers sit in the freezer for about 30 minutes to an hour. That way they are easy to transfer to the cake.

I always make flowers at least two to three days in advance but I don't freeze them until the day of.

I hope this makes sense.

I use cali4dawn's recipe but I only use 1 cup butter and 1 cup shortening instead of 1.5 cups of butter.

Your flowers will sit fine with this recipe. I made a batch of icing using her recipe and left the icing in an airtight container for two weeks and it tasted just as fresh as it did the day I made it.

Your flowers should be fine if you freeze them for a longer period.

I don't place the flowers on top of each other. When you first make the flowers with buttercream the icing isn't hard enough to stack the flowers. I use a large flat container that will hold several flowers and if I need more flowers I just use more containers.

i like doing the flowers in buttercream. but if time isnt on ur side then go with royal.

I always seem to be odd man out here

I find people scrape off the frosting if it is too thick and do not eat the bc flowers ok there are some that LOVE the extra thick part

I like royal icing and if a large flower remove it which usually means it goes on a childs plate.

Ok then I always did love those happy birthday things that whet on the cake when you were a child at birthday parties and my mom rarely bought them. There is a technique you suck on the flowers not chomp into them ok I have no taste

Really I mostly make gumpaste these days and at times candy clay and royal icing never did master that BC rose. need to go back and practice it.

I make by flowers out of BC too. I try to make them the day before and freeze them over night. This makes them easier to transfer to the cake. Also, be sure to use a stiff consistency or your flowers will fall. Hope this helps!
Dawn

My customers prefer bc. I also prefer bc. I do keep some royal flowers made up for fillers, specifically drop flowers, apple blossoms, violets, daisys, and pansys. It's great to have a bunch of drop flowers on hand!

I do bc flower on free days and store them in thin flat airtight containers and frezz them there ready to put on a cake whenever needed

I'm new to deocrating and I'm decorating a cake that is calling for royal drop flowers (65 of them). I've been reading a lot about royal icing and it seems like I would be happier with buttercream flowers (I will use calidawn's recipe as is - or should I change it for flowers?). I need the cake for next Saturday. It would be really helpful for me to make them ahead of time. I would make them on Friday and put on the cake the following Friday. When would I put them in the freezer and when would I take them out so they were ready to put on the cake on Friday? THANK YOU