5 Botanical bakes that are sure to delight

You don’t have to be green fingered to bring some garden-inspired decorative elements to your baking. All you need is an eye for detail and a little dexterity to coax beautiful buds, blooms and leaves from slabs of marzipan and icing. We’ve found 5 of our favourite flora and fauna-inspired bakes to share with you this week.

1. Painted flower cake

You don’t need to have Monet’s flower-painting ability to turn a very ordinary iced cake into something marvellous. Simply smooth the ready-to-roll icing over the cake and trim the excess to create the perfect white canvas for your blossoms. Be sure to allow the icing to set for 24 hours before going arty on it. Find a pretty flower pattern you’d like to copy, or design one yourself. Alternatively you could press a flower cutter into the surface. Choose your desired colour palette and voila! One beautiful artistically painted cake.

2. How to model a marzipan rose video tutorial

Marzipan is a wonderful and delicious material to work with and very compliant. This video tutorial shows you how to achieve the delicate folds and contours of an English rose with minimal fuss. You’ll be so impressed by what you can achieve after a short time that your main difficulty will be in not allowing your cake to become too overgrown. Just choose the right colour marzipan for your cake and get cracking.

3. How to make a cupcake bouquet

A bunch of fragrant blooms is certain to bring a smile to the face of any recipient, but this community recipe is guaranteed to delight. An edible bouquet of distinctive flower cupcakes is the perfect gesture for almost any occasion. Follow the instructions and experiment with different icing techniques to find the right assortment of blooms you know they’ll love and present in a polystyrene ball wrapped with your favourite coloured paper.

4. Marzipan flower cake recipe

If you’ve evolved your marzipan rose-making skills using the video above then why not apply them to an elegant two-tiered cake. This vintage rose colour combination has a simple beauty that makes this bake a charming centrepiece for weddings, birthdays, Christenings or anniversaries. This cake is all about the simplicity, so beware of the temptation to smother it.

5. Chocolate and beetroot cake bites

Everyone will be thrilled by this allotment-inspired ball of cakey loveliness. Though perhaps an unconventional ingredient, beetroot makes a delightful addition to a cake. All that’s needed is some sculpting skills to get the cake balls to hold together firmly before you cover with deep purple ready-to-roll icing. A chocolatey bed of buttons simulates soil rather effectively and will delight adults and children alike.

For more fresh baking inspiration and delightful decoration ideas by browsing our recipe library.