This was a potted plant cake I made for my niece’s housewarming party in her new apartment. I was looking for something to fit the theme and thought a plant was a very common gift for someone’s new home.
The cake is 4 layers of homemade cake, 2 chocolate and 2 vanilla. The 3 bottom layers are from an 8″ pan and the top (rim of the pot) is a 9″ pan. The icing is homemade vanilla butter cream tinted with copper and brown Wilton gel coloring to get the Terra cotta color. I made the imprinted design on the pot by rubbing my hand over a paper towel placed around the cake after the icing crusted slightly. The top has a layer of brown icing and the dirt is crumbled chocolate cake I saved from flattening the layers.
The leaves are sugar gum paste I dyed green using Wilton gel coloring. I couldn’t find a leaf cutout big enough, so this is actually done using a football shaped cookie cutter. I used a (washed) leaf from an artificial plant to imprint the leaf texture and added accents with Wilton leaf green dusting powder. I stuck the floral wire stems into cut off drinking straws and then pushed the straws into the cake so they would stand straighter without ruining the cake (also, the straws were sterile, as floral wire may not be).
This was my first attempt at a cake like this and I was really happy with the result. Everyone was very impressed and my niece was so happy. I only wish I had taken the time to make more gum paste leaves so the plant would have looked fuller, but time ran out.
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