How to Make Royal Icing Pansies

Pansy

Sugar or icing flowers make a beautiful and impressive decoration for any cake. Although it is possible to make just about any flower out of icing, roses tend to be the most common. However, there are many other flowers, like pansies, violets and other flat flowers, that are equally lovely and much easier to make, especially for the beginner cake decorator or sugar artist. Pansies in particular are eye-catching and festive, lending cakes or cupcakes a sweet touch of spring.

Things You'll Need

• Royal Icing (yellow, plus purple or another color) Flower nail (1 inch or larger) 2-inch squares of parchment paper 2 pastry bags 2 #104 decorating tips 1 #1 decorating tip

Instructions

1. Fill one pastry bag half full with yellow royal icing and the other bag with purple (or other color). Attach a #104 tip to each bag.

2. Place a dab of icing on the flower nail and place a square of parchment over the icing, pressing lightly to secure the parchment to the nail. If desired, you may draw a 1-inch circle divided into four quarters on the parchment to use as a template.

3. Look at the #104 tip. Its opening is shaped like an elongated teardrop, with one end wider than the other. Hold the nail in your left hand and the yellow icing pastry bag with #104 tip in your right hand (if you are left-handed, reverse all directions).

4. Place the wide end of the tip in the middle of the flower nail, with the narrow end pointed up and away from the nail at approximately a 45-degree angle. The bag should be pointing to your right, in the 3 o'clock position, so that the tip is pointing straight away from you (in the 12 o'clock position). Squeeze the bag with steady pressure and move the tip straight toward the edge of the nail and back to center as you rotate the nail one-quarter turn counter-clockwise to form a curved petal that covers one-quarter of the flower nail surface. You will have to move the tip approximately one-half of the way to the edge to form this petal. Repeat this step to form a similar petal adjacent to the first petal.

5. Add two smaller petals on top of the original two petals by using the same movement on a smaller scale, moving the tip only one-quarter of the distance to the edge of the nail. These petals should take up half of the surface of the flower nail.

6. Switch to the other icing color to form the final petal. Place the wide end of the tip on the center of the nail as before, with the nail rotated so that the bag is in the 3 o'clock position and the tip is aligned with the edge of the existing petals. As you rotate the nail, pipe icing using steady pressure to create the final petal. If desired, you may rock your hand slightly to produce a ruffled effect. Rotate the nail a half turn so that the final petal covers the empty half of the flower nail entirely and meets up with the existing petals on both sides.

7. Replace the #104 tip on the bag of yellow icing with the #1 tip. Hold the bag straight up and down with the tip pointing at the center of the flower. Using steady pressure, pipe a tiny loop in the center of the flower. If you are making a large batch of pansies, you can wait until you have several made, then switch the tips and do all of the centers at once.

8. Allow the icing pansies to dry until they are completely hardened. If desired, you may place them on a curved surface as they dry to give them more dimension. Once dry, peel off the parchment paper and store in an airtight container for future use.

Tips & Warnings

• Purple and yellow are traditional colors for pansies, but they can be made from almost any color or combination of colors. Yellow is essential for the center, though. If you use a light icing color for your pansies, you can paint striations and other markings on them with a fine paint brush dipped in food coloring (thinned with clear vanilla extract if necessary). Look at real pansies for inspiration.