This was back in August (To show you how far behind I am in my posts) for my friend’s daughter’s birthday. She was turning 7 and was having a tea party for her birthday. I showed my friend the book and she pointed to the piped flower decorations. I thought I could at least try it. So I told her I would.

I used the basic buttermilk recipe with the fluffy white frosting, only I made sure to smooth the frosting on the tops so the flowers would lay nicely. I took some of the remaining frosting and split it into bowls, just kind of guessing how much I thought I would need for blue pansy flowers, pink sweet pea flowers, and green for the stems. Martha suggested to use gel dye coloring and I highly recommend it! It was so much more manageable than the drops! I grew up using the liquid drops but I feel I had a better handle with the gel. 

After dying the frosting I attempted my first flower, the pansy. My boyfriend can attest to this…I screwed it up. The second one….terrible. So, as I always do, I started to panic. It was just a short time before the party and I could not get how to make these flowers! I was trying my best to follow Martha’s description holding the pipe with the right shaped tip at a certain angle, and slowly rotating the cupcake, but…they were just blue blobs on green sticks. 

Finally, and I have no idea how it happened, I got one right! I was so please I am pretty sure I did a little jig right there in the kitchen! With my spirits high I tried to perfect a few more and then moved on to the sweet peas.

I suppose once I made that cosmic connection with the confectionary floral realm, all flowers came to me with ease! I don’t think I had a single sweet pea that was considered unsatisfactory for presenting! So I took them to the party and they were a great addition to a lovely outdoor tea party!