Pretty Poppy Cake

Beautiful royal icing poppies and elegant ruffles set this simple, stylish cake apart from the crowd. It’s a stunning little cake that’s sure to impress guests at any celebration. You can make the poppies ahead of time, so there’s no last-minute rushing to finish – just ice and pipe ruffles, then add flowers when you’re ready to show off your handiwork.

Skill LevelIntermediate

Ingredients & Tools
Instructions

Instructions

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Two days in advance, make royal icing poppies. Combine Red-Red with a moderate amount of Christmas Red to get red color shown. Prepare royal icing according to recipe. Using Moss Green icing color, tint ¼ cup icing green. Using Black icing color, tint ¼ cup black. Tint remaining icing red using color combination provided.
Prepare bags with royal icing. Prepare one bag with tip 104 and red, one bag with tip 32 and green and one bag with tip 2 and black.
Using the poppy technique, pipe 8 to 10 poppies. Let dry 24-48 hours, longer if conditions are humid.
Bake cake. Prepare cake mix according to recipe instructions. Bake and cool two 6-inch layers. Level to 2 ½ in. each and stack for a 5-inch high cake. Ice smooth with white buttercream, leaving sides lightly iced.
Prepare bag. Prepare decorating bag with tip 104 and white icing.
Decorate cake. Pipe vertical ruffles on sides of cake, starting at base. Use slightly heavy pressure to create ruffled line while piping straight up.
Place poppies in a ring around the top edge, pressing in gently to ensure placement.