Do you love buttercream flowers?  I know I do.  As I prepare for my buttercream e-book, I am having so much fun getting my hands messy again with piping buttercream flowers. I have wanted to make some buttercream peonies for a while now, but I must admit carving cakes have taken over a bit. So, I am really happy to get back to my first love and back the basics. This week I created a bucket cake topped with buttercream peony. I made a few closed peonies and an open peony.

I love the look of peonies, they are such delicate flowers. And they are just so beautiful. Making them with buttercream another story.

Piping buttercream flowers can look intimidating at times, but it’s not.

If you haven’t piped anything in a while, it’s like riding a bike you can get right back on again. This can get a bit messy, but it’s a sweet mess.

To Make buttercream Peony

When making any buttercream flowers you have to remember three things. What I call CAP; consistency, angle, and pressure.

Consistency is how thin or how stiff you make your buttercream. Some flowers such as a rose and peony require stiff consistency. Stiff consistency holds its peak and does flop over. But, not so stiff that your hand hurts when you pipe.

The angle for piping is either 45 degrees or 90 degrees and pressure is light, medium, or heavy. In addition to CAP, you need to know what piping tip to use. Once you have those things covered then it’s all about technique.

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So what materials do you need for the buttercream peony

To make buttercream peony, I used a curved flower tip. I love using a curve tip because it makes it easier to pipe the peony petals. This tip is the secret to getting the look of the peony because it naturally falls into place.

Also, I ditched the flower nail for ramekins. The ramekins give a lot of control and free up your left hand. This is perfect for a beginner or if you don’t have any flower nails. If you are using flower nails use a styrofoam block to hold the flower nail in place.  While it’s not mandatory, I think it makes it easier.

Other Materials

• Stiff consistency buttercream (Use a Wilton or make your own see recipe here)
• Wilton Tip #123
• Wilton tip 352 leaf tip
• Wilton lemon yellow gel color
• Wilton orange
• Wilton burgundy
• Wilton pink
• Piping bags
• Flower Nail or a flat surface
• Parchment squares

Now that we have that covered let’s grab your piping bags.

How to make the parchment square

You can make parchment squares by cutting parchment paper into 2×2 squares or larger depending on the size flower. These squares make it easy to move your flowers to the refrigerator or on or off the flower nail.

How to make the base of the flower

Color some buttercream burgundy with some pink, orange, and yellow (add some orange to the yellow for a nice mustard yellow).  Then add tip 123 piping tip to the piping bag, cut off the end of the bag and add the buttercream. To save piping bags add the buttercream to a piping bag and insert see how-to here.  Remember to cover the buttercream when not in use so that it doesn’t crust over.

To make the base of the peony you can either use the same piping tip of a round tip. You may want to create a small or large base depending on the size of the flower.

Add the petals for a closed peony

To create a closed peony you are going to add three petals to cover the top of the base. Hold your piping bag at a 45-degree angle pipe each petal goes up and over. Turn the flower nail (or ramekin) with your left hand after you pipe each petal.

Then add each additional petal at the last petal to create an overlap.

The more petal you add the bigger your flower will be.

How to make an open peony

To make an open peony create a base similar to the closed peony. Use a grass tip 233 with a contrasting color to pipe the center.

Then pipe petals all around it in a circular motion.  You should be able to see it from the top.

Make the starting petals using the same technique above. And overlap each petal.

Putting it all together

To make the bucket, I rolled out some brown fondant and using a ribbon cutter, cut one-inch strips.  Then using a Dresden tool made marks going in different directions to get that used wood look. 

I added each strip around a 6-inch cake and added two long strips around the strips.  Then, little indents all around to look like a real bucket.  After I was satisfied with the look, I added some more buttercream to the top of the bucket.

I arranged the flowers on top of the buttercream.  Then I colored some buttercream with moss green and leaf green and using a leaf tip 352, I added leaves in between each flower.

That’s it, a beautiful bouquet of flowers. Want to learn more about buttercream? Get your copy today of the Ultimate Buttercream Guide Book.

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