Flowerpot Cakes

Feeling a bit bored today? Why not try my new game...'Spot the Cake'...what do you mean it's not that difficult!?!

These little flowerpot cakes are really cute and can be scaled up to a full size cake...maybe for your Aunty's birthday or Mother's Day perhaps! Rather appropriately the cake inside is a mud cake, so when you cut into them you get to see the earth.

The mud cake was made as a large square cake which I cut into layers and then used a cutter to give several large circles which were stacked on top of each other and sandwiched with buttercream. I then carved into the cake to give the tapered flowerpot effect. Next the whole thing was coated in buttercream before covering with paste (teddy bear brown with a little orange paste and some red colour to give the terracotta colour).

The pots were covered upside down and then turned upright, to cover the top a large circle of dark brown paste was stuck on and finally a strip of the terracotta to give the flowerpot effect.

These flower pots are my entry into this month's Tea Time Treats as the theme is 'Floral'...perfect! However, I apologise to all the horticulturalists out there...I'm not sure my flowers are entirely identifiable...the cutter for the purple flowers simply says 'blossom' and the paste colour is African Violet. Although, I'm sure Alan Titchmarsh wouldn't mind! Tea Time Treats is hosted by Karen at Lavender and Lovage and Kate at What Kate Baked, check out their blogs to find out more.

I decided to make two different types of flowers. The first one, the rolled roses is the simpler option and doesn't require any specialist equipment. You just need to take some of the pink sugarpaste and add some CMC about an hour before you want to use it, this will strenthen it up. Then roll out a length of paste in a strip, then fold this in half lengthways. Some people like to put glue down the length too, to stick the ends together. To roll the flower, simply tuck over the first corner (see picture) to form the bud and then just roll. If there is any excess at the back when you've finished you can simply cut it off.

For the leaves I just cut out circles of green paste and pinched each end into a point...simples!

To make the purple blossoms, I used a blossom cutter and impression mould to add detail and then dusted with African Violet to add depth. The leaves were made using a PME plunge cutter and veiner...and the finishing touch, three dots of yellow royal icing piped into the centre of each flower.

Following the crown cake on the postbox, I thought I could take my flower pots to the Chelsea Flower Show this week for a spot of #caking...they'd fit right in! :-)