How to Make a Flower Shaped Cake

Easily make a flower cake for a party.

Baking and decorating a cake for a special occasion is a way to show you care. A flower cake is appropriate for many celebrations, such as a little girl's birthday, an anniversary -- or even for a centerpiece at a dinner party. Make the cake the day before the event, so that you do not put yourself under too much pressure, and be creative. In the world of cakes, flowers can take on any color and be of any size. Your only limit is your imagination.

Things You'll Need

• 1 lb. softened butter
• 1 lb. caster sugar
• 8 large eggs
• 1 lb. self-raising flour
• 4 level tsp. baking powder
• A few drops vanilla essence
• 1 lb. icing sugar
• Glycerin
• Package desiccated coconut
• Food colorings in variety of colors
• Cake decorations, cherries, silver balls, etc.
• 8-inch, 6-inch, 4-inch sandwich tins

Instructions

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Make the cake mixture. Soften the butter and caster sugar, add the eggs and beat them together. Add the vanilla essence and the baking powder. Sieve the flour into the mixture and stir in with the side of a large spoon. Add a little milk until the mixture is at a consistency where it will remain in soft peaks. Grease the round cake tins and divide the mixture between them. If you only have one tin in each size, you will need to make the cakes in two batches.

2. Bake two 8-inch cakes, one 6-inch cake and one 4-inch cake for about 25 minutes. Check that the cakes are cooked by pressing gently on the top. If they feel springy, they are done.

3. Draw the outline of a flower shape onto tracing paper. Use a saucer to get the rounded edges. Cut out the template and desiccated trim the 8-inch layers into a flower. Draw smaller designs to fit the 6-inch cake and the 4-inch cake. Trim the cakes to the template shape. Cut leaf shapes from the leftover cake pieces

4. Add green food coloring to half of the desiccated coconut, and add blue food coloring to the other half. Cover a large, clean tray to make it look like grass and sky. Assemble the largest cakes into one flower, sandwiched together with jam.

5. Make the royal icing. Sieve the icing sugar and add glycerin, water and food coloring until the icing is of a consistency where it can be rolled. Put cornflour on the worktop to stop the icing from sticking. Use the colors of your choice for each of the three flowers, and drape the icing over each flower cake. Cut off excess icing. Add green icing to each leaf and fashion a flower stem from green rolled icing.

6. Place the icing stem on the tray and assemble the cakes in order of their sizes. Place the smaller cakes as if they are growing up a stem. Position the leaves on the stem. Add candied cherries or decorations to enhance your cake and make it more personal. Add a yellow sun to the corner and write a greeting or message.

Tips & Warnings

• Add milk to the cake mixture to make it easier to cut when baked.

• Add different fillings to the large cake or make three different flavors for each flower.

• Leave yourself time for the cakes to cool before cutting and icing them.

References

• Good to Know Recipes: Victoria sandwich
• BBC Food: Victoria sponge