I had a friend at work who was having a special birthday – I won’t say how old! She is a wonderful person full life. With all her hobbies, I had several themes to pick from. I decided to go with her love of gardening as my inspiration. I went through pictures of different flowers and felt like I could do roses justice.
I made the base of the cake into what looked like a Terra Cotta pot. I stacked two, round 6″ cakes and a 4″ round cake (I baked it in a glass bowl because I didn’t have a cake pan that small) with butter cream frosting as filling. Then I coated the entire stack with butter cream frosting creating one large cake. I added a few drops of orange, yellow and brown food coloring to get the Terra Cotta color. I used wooden skewers (like the ones used for BBQ’s) to secure the cakes together.
I smoothed the butter cream frosting with a paper towel and a fondant smoother. Be careful with the fondant smoother. I got carried away and slipped off my paper towel causing a large skid mark while I was smoothing my frosting. I had to add more frosting to that area and start over! Ooops! (if you haven’t seen the fun trick to smooth frosting with a paper towel, check it out on YouTube. I will never go back to any other method!)
To make the “dirt” on my flower pot, I crumbled up some of the chocolate cake scraps that I had left over. I placed it strategically onto the top of the pot. My next step was making the butter cream roses. I am not the best at flowers, so I cheat! I like to use a chocolate kiss as the base to my roses. I stick it on my frosting nail with frosting, then “build” my rose petals on it. A real decorator uses frosting in the middle. Shhhh! My roses have a special treat in them for all to enjoy! I wanted my butter cream frosting roses to have a real look to them, so I used more than one color on each of the roses.
I mixed the colors I wanted in separate bowls. I added contrasting colors to the inside of my frosting bags before filling it with the lighter color. For example: I used orange butter cream frosting streaked into the bag with yellow butter cream frosting. I used dark pink butter cream frosting streaked into the bag with light pink butter cream frosting. Once I was done with each butter cream rose, I placed it in the freezer or refrigerator to harden. They are easier to work with if they aren’t so soft.
After completing each of the roses, I placed them on the “dirt” covered Terra Cotta cake pot with butter cream frosting as the “glue.” I used two colors of green butter cream frosting to create leaves with all the roses. As I looked at the Terra Cotta cake with flowers on top, I decided to add a few to the base. Once the roses were added to the base, the cake looked complete. I was very pleased with how my first flower pot cake turned out.
At our work party, my colleagues refused to cut into the cake after we sang to the guest of honor. They thought it was too beautiful to eat. I made quick work of cutting and dividing the cake. It was yummy and everyone enjoyed it!
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