i bought these rose shaped silicone molds and was so eager to use them so i made these cranberry rose teacakes. i was never a fan of silicone molds since they give baked goods a weird sheen. luckily these did not! i added dried rose petals, nielsen massey's rosewater extract, rose syrup, vanilla bean paste and a touch of pink food coloring. paired them with my favorite TWG's bain de roses tea and they were so good!


this is essentially a pound cake, and also my first time use a pound cake recipe to make them into other shapes. apart from some weird air bubbles at the bottom (or top, after turning over), they turned out really well. you could also use your favorite pound cake or sponge cake recipe.


rose shaped silicone mold, pretty versatile and very essential for afternoon tea! can also be used for puddings, jellies, even non edibles like soaps and candles.

i used the same recipe for the tri colored pound cake two entries back and did some tweaks. makes exactly 6 teacakes.

ingredients :

100g butter, softened
60g sugar
2 eggs
100g cake flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp each of rosewater extract, rose syrup, vanilla bean paste
5 dried rose buds, ground
handful of dried cranberries or craisins, chopped
pink or red food coloring

method :

1. preheat oven to 170C.
2. in a bowl cream together butter and sugar until pale.
3. add in eggs one at a time and whisk until combined. add in rosewater, rose syrup, vanilla and food coloring.
4. sift together cake flour & baking powder and add into the above.
5. fold in dried roses and cranberries and mix well.
6. pipe or spoon batter into the rose shaped mold. i find that piping is less messy, you could also use an ice cream scoop.
7. bake for 18-20 mins until cooked. let cool.

christmas is just around the corner. whats more apt than a christmas wreath cake? before making this, i did my research looking at pictures of christmas wreaths, not the kind with fake decorations like baubles but those made with real flowers so i came up with this. i adorned my wreath cake with twine, red roses, raspberries, holly berries, pine cones and noble fir (or something along that line). i feel that among all the flower cakes i've made, this one is the most true to life because of the colors.


my favorite part would have to be the raspberries. they're so lifelike i'm surprised myself!


for the cake itself, i made a four layer red and white genoise sponge cake. i need to talk about this cake because i learned a new method in torting/cutting it into layers and it was pretty easy. maybe not new, but for me, it is. previously i tried methods like using the wilton layer tool (the kind that looks like a hanger), placing two wooden board strips by each side of the cake, or even the cake cutting "thingies" where you clip at both ends of the knife, i even tried using a dental floss! but i find that using a ruler to mark around the cake and then cutting along the markings with a very large and heavy knife does the trick. i bought a huge serrated cake knife and its very heavy so the knife does not slant when you slice with it.


i had fun making this cake and its really simple to put together, unlike one adorned with flowers. for the genoise sponge, i used the recipe from here. its a pretty good recipe though it didn't rise much for me. i did do the hot water bath thing and whisked the batter til ribbon stage so i have no idea! i only managed to obtain 2 slices so i would suggest making the 18cm one and doubling the quantity if you intend to do a 4 layer cake like mine.

over the past few days i learned to pipe a ton of new flowers. it was really fun so i'm here to spam some pictures! i actually had plan to make a round cake but i thought cupcakes would be more interesting since i've never tried making flower cupcake before. they all turned out very romantic shabby chic, it reminds me of an english rose garden! the pic above shows ranunculus buds and english/david austin rose.


to be honest i have no idea what this flower is but the koreans do it, ALOT. it might be another type of ranunculus or ribbon rose. i also did baby's breath as a filler, for the first time. previously i did larger buds but i think the smaller ones are way prettier.


my favorite - open rose, hydrangea and apple blossom.


pink and white (actually very light minty green but it doesn't really show) hydrangeas. i love hydrangeas and these have become my favorite flower to pipe now.


full shot of all the cupcakes


packed in a kraft cupcake box. i think some of the flowers were too huge to use on a cupcake. thats because i originally made them to be placed on a cake. definitely needs some scaling down.


i'm not really adventurous when it comes to the color combination, choosing to be in the safe zone still, such as using pink, white and green shades. i did experiment with different tone so i think the flowers look more life-like now. i've seen the dark red, blue and turquoise flower cake on instagram and they look amazing. can't wait to try experimenting with more flowers!

i wasn't actually going to blog about another buttercream flower cake so soon but these two weeks, i did nothing but practice piping flowers until wee hours in the morning and i had like 3 trays of flowers in the freezer so i was thinking, heck, i'll just assemble them. after that i can just reuse the buttercream to make other flowers. koreans mainly make theirs in 3 forms - bouquet, wreath or crescent so since i made the bouquet one already, i decided to tackle the wreath one. its pretty nervous wrecking since i have not made anything remote similar. good chance to practice the placement, i think.

buttercream flower cakes are the rage these days. apparently its very popular with the koreans and they seemed to have "revived" this trend of making old school buttercream cakes into something more modern and beautiful. i decided to jump on the bandwagon and hereby present to you my first ever buttercream flower cake made for my 15th wedding anniversary! prior to this, i have no experience piping flowers, as in, petal by petal. my piping tip repertoire is pathetic and i probably own like what, 5 piping tips at most. i have a couple of plain tips which i use for macarons and eclairs, 1 saint honore tip and a 2D flower tip for rose swirls in cupcakes. oh right, and a bismarck tip! so this time, i made a trip to the baking supplies shop and bought 10 tips for making various flowers and leaves, plus a flower nail and lifter.