-How to Pipe Buttercream Flowers - Piping tutorial! _ Georgia's Cakes

Hey guys, welcome back to my channel and welcome back to my Back to Basics series. In this tutorial I'm going to show you how to make buttercream piped flowers. Now this technique isn't so basic but there are so many cake decorators and designers who specialise in buttercream flowers and it really takes years and years to perfect. I myself am still practising but I still wanted to show you how to create them and give you the basics. So for buttercream flowers you do need a couple of specific pieces of equipment. I will list everything in the comment box below. To start off I've got a few different bags of coloured buttercream and different tips at the end too, which I'll go into more detail when I start using them. I also have a piping nail. So this basically acts as a mini turntable in your hand so you can have a 360 degree access to the flowers when you pipe them. I've also cut up small squares of parchment paper because this is going to act as the base of each flower when we pipe and I have a wooden board to place the flowers on once I've completed each one. So without further ado let's get started. So the first tip I'm going to show you is a classic petal tip and there are a few different ways how to use this tip and it's shaped a bit like a teardrop. So the important bit when using this tip is to know where the smallest point of the tip is. So I filled this piping bag halfway purely because it's easier to control when there's less buttercream inside. I'm going to cup it in my hand and squeeze it with my fingers just like I would do with any other piping bag. Now I've actually got two shades of purple in here. I find having different shades in a piping bag when creating flowers gives a little bit more depth and more of a realistic look. And then I can adjust the piping tip depending on where I want each colour to come out. And now I'm ready to pipe. The first thing I'm going to do is place a small amount of buttercream onto the piping nail. This is purely to stick the little piece of parchment onto it and as you can see it's going to act like a little turntable. So I'm going to twist it in my fingers and that's the motion you want. I've also got myself a little bit of paper towel to dab my piping tip in case it gets clogged up because I want to keep it nice and clean. So the first flower shape I'm going to show you is a flat daisy-like flower. I want the smallest point of the tip facing away from the centre and place the piping bag flat. And with an even pressure I'm going to squeeze out the buttercream into a small arch shape and naturally it creates a petal. I'm going to do the exact same thing right next to the petal I've just piped and keep going piping these petals next to each other until I've got back where I started. And it really is that simple to create one of these flat flowers and if I show you from the side you can see that it is fairly flat. I'm just going to complete this by adding a small blob of yellow buttercream in the middle and there you go a perfect little flower. So now I'm going to slide it off the nail and place it onto the board. Once I've piped all my flowers I want to put them in the freezer so it's a lot easier when they're all resting on a board because I can just put the whole thing in the freezer at one time rather than taking each flower there individually. So I'm going to show you the exact same thing however this time I'm going to angle the piping tip a little bit differently. I'm actually going to tilt it upwards so it's not so flat this time and you can see the difference in the petals. They suddenly become more 3D like. There's no right or wrong it's simply down to personal preference but if you're doing other 3D flowers this flower may be a better option. Once again I'm going to add the center which wasn't so central on that one and place it onto the board. So the next flower I'm going to show you is a rose. Now this flower does require some practice but it is using the same piping tip. Once again I'm going to secure that piece of parchment onto the nail with a little bit of buttercream but angle the piping tip totally differently this time. This time I want the tip facing upwards so the small part of the tip facing to the ceiling. I'm then going to pipe one big circle around each other and that's actually going to act as the bud of the flower and now I have something to pipe on. So what I'm going to do in a slight arched movement once again only this time going up and down is pipe individual petals around that center bit of buttercream. So I'm going to start off with three. You can already see the effect taking place. I'm going to wipe the tip to keep it clean and then continue with my next layer. So every layer I pipe I'm going to change the angle of the tip very slightly to open the flower up. So I'm bringing the angle of the piping bag outwards and that makes the flower open. Slide it off and onto the board it goes. As I said practice makes perfect. I've been practicing these for a few years now and I still get better ones than others. You can also do not so many petals and have more of a closed rose and if at any point your buttercream starts to feel a little bit soft because you've been handling it too much then pop it in the fridge for about five minutes for it to firm up slightly and you'll find it a lot easier to pipe with. So this next tip is also a petal tip but it is slightly rounded. So again the tip has a thin part so I'm going to position it in the same way but you'll see the difference. This creates more of a peony like flower. The petals are naturally curved and more closed. So as I pipe layers upon layers you can see that the effect is slightly different to the rose but still just as gorgeous and peonies are my favourite flowers so I absolutely love making these ones. You can also start with a slightly different centre to make it more like an English rose. I've literally done a little squiggle in the middle and then start piping the petals around it and then you can get a slightly more open flower. Once again if you change the angle of the piping bag as you pipe the layers on the outside you get a more open flower too. So this next tip is actually called a leaf tip and you'll see why later on when I pipe some leaves with it but it's actually a great way to create different types of petals too. People think that you actually hold it this direction but you don't. You actually want to twist it this way so you can't see that v anymore. Once again a little bit of buttercream goes on the nail and holding the piping bag sideways all I'm going to do is push and pull and that is how you get this leaf or petal like shape. If you have to do this in green it would look like leaves but if you do it in another colour such as yellow like I have it looks more like a flower. I'm going to put a little bit of brown in the middle and it sort of resembles a sunflower. So this is another quick way how to create another flat piped flower. If you do this with red it kind of looks like a poinsettia plant too so you could be really creative just with the same tip. This next tip is also called a petal tip but you can see is a completely different shape to the last one. It kind of looks like a smiley face. Once again I'm going to secure the parchment paper to the nail and I'm actually going to start off with a small mound. Now I have yellow so I'm going to use yellow but you could stick to white of course or use the same colour that you're piping the flower with. In this case I've got blue. Now I find this tip one of the hardest ones to use because it's really difficult to control the same amount coming out the piping bag each time you pipe with it. If you drag the petals too far they can get a bit soft and flimsy and not really hold their shape. So you actually want to do shorter petals than you think and try and keep the same action on every petal that you pipe. But you can see that the shape of this tip gives a beautiful 3D curved petal effect. And pipe layer upon layer going from the outside inwards. I find it easier doing it this way. You can start from the inside if you want but I feel like that the petals that you've already piped get in the way of the ones that you're trying to create so I like going from the outside in. And it's nice to vary these sizes too so you can do some large ones and some smaller ones and of course change the colour. So I'll do a few blue and a few yellow too. So now I've shown you how to use the four different piping tips. You can of course get as creative as you want. You can put different colours in the piping bags, you can create different sizes. It's all dependent on what you want to use it for. So once these have gone in the freezer and chilled I'm going to apply it to a small cake. So I want to keep these flowers on the slightly smaller side. If however you are doing a larger cake or decorating large cupcakes then by all means create larger flowers. Something else to consider as you always should when you're decorating a cake is to keep within a colour theme and make sure all the colours go with each other. So naturally I use more of a pastel palette. So I've got the pinks, yellows, blues and purples. I wouldn't go with anything too bright otherwise it starts to look very unnatural. So now my board is full of different kinds of flowers. This can now go into the freezer and you want them in there for a good 15 minutes because you want them completely firm before you start handling them again. If you don't have room in your freezer then they can go in the fridge but it does take a lot longer for them to firm up. So the freezer is best. So as I said before I'm going to use these flowers to decorate this mini cake. So this is a ready crumb coated four inch cake. It's a small cake but really cute and perfect for four to five people to enjoy and I've got a piping bag with the green buttercream inside with the small leaf tip on the end and I've also got the leftovers of the buttercream that I was using before. Some of these piping tips work great as fillers. So as I said this is a small leaf tip and I have two shades of green inside to add depth and detail and I use it the same way as I did when I was making the petals. I push, stop squeezing and then pull away and that's how you create the leaf tip. The reason why I saved the leaves until this point is because these are going to act as an adhesive for the flowers so they can stick onto the cake as well as add a leafy background. I'm going to dot around a few leaves roughly mapping out where I want to put the flowers. So kind of in this crescent shape on the top and then coming down the front as a waterfall. Now this is very rough and I'm sure I'll be adding more afterwards but it's good to map out where you want to place the flowers because you need to work quickly once they come out the freezer. So like I said the flowers have been in for a good 15 minutes and they're firm enough that when I touch them no buttercream comes off my fingers so they're ready to use. And as you can see you can simply pick up the flower into your hands and it comes right off the paper all in one and these will go directly on the cake. So as I said you do need to work fast especially if you have warm hands like I do because otherwise the flowers will start melting in your hands. But really simply choose a flower, take off the parchment and place it onto the cake and go on with the next one. Now I'm conscious of mixing colours and shapes as much as possible so I'll try and separate pinks and blues from one another and of course I'm going to add buttercream in places that I want to place the flowers if I haven't done so already and because I'm using the leaf tip it only adds to the effect if you do end up seeing the leaves rather than just blobs of buttercream. If at any point the flowers start to feel a little bit soft then you can pop them back in the freezer for another five to ten minutes. While they're in the freezer I'm just going to fill in the gaps between the flowers I've already placed on with a few leaves and I've also got a small star tip with some multicoloured buttercream and if I pipe a collection of small dots they kind of resemble hydrangea flowers and once again they're a great filler in between gaps. So back to the flowers, I'm going to come down the front and place some flowers on the leaves that I've already piped, mixing between the slightly flatter and the slightly more 3D flowers too. You can of course just stick to 2D or 3D flowers but I like a nice balance between the two, just makes it more interesting. And keep filling in with those leaves and other piping tips to give this filler effect because you don't really want to see any gaps in between the flowers. A couple more leaves and then we are done. So there you go, a piped buttercream flower cake tutorial. Of course you can apply these buttercream flowers to cupcakes, different types of desserts, I'm just showing you this example here but give it a go, try them out and of course if you do try it out please tag me at georgiascakes on Instagram. If you would like to see any more specific tutorials then please leave a comment because I absolutely love seeing you recreate these designs. Don't forget to like this video, subscribe to my channel and see you soon for more tutorials.