Easy Watercolor Flowers Cake Tutorial

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If you've seen any of my cake tutorials, you know that I love using stamps on cakes. You can stamp outlines, or create impressions with stamps and can feature a wide variety of techniques. My easy watercolor flowers cake features techniques like watercolor painting, royal icing detail, impressing fondant and more that is easy, quick to decorate and perfect for all skill levels. If you're like me and you have shaky hands, or can't paint freehand to save your life, then this tutorial is for you.

Stamps and Cake Decorating

I used square tiers for this cake and paneled them. It's much easier to impress fondant before it is on the cake. This allows you to make an even impression and lessons the risk of stamping too hard and ripping the fondant. You can use any stamps you prefer. I always tend to use floral stamps, particularly from Iron Orchid Designs. I use these all the time. They're durable, food safe, and super high quality. The stamp I use is called Peonies by IOD, but use any stamp that you love.

The Bottom Tier

To make the coral color fondant, I used Americolor orange and electric pink in a 2:1 ratio. I dusted sugar peonies to match. Firmly impress the tier with the stamp, but not too hard that the stamp pushes through the fondant. To define the lines and design, I used a soft gold luster dust mixed with Everclear alcohol to paint in the impressed lines.

Watercolor Painting

The part I love about watercolor painting is that there is not right or wrong way to do it. I used gel food color - the same Americolor orange and electric pink that I used for the fondant as well as Americolor gold (yellow) for the center of the peonies. I mixed the colors with alcohol to make a thin, liquid-y paint. The goal is to add color gradually, so you do want to aim for a more watery, not too pigmented paint. I alternated between the orange and pink, layering color, until I was happy with the results. For the best results, leave some parts of the watercolor flowers light, some darker. Variation looks this best for this design. For the center of the flowers, I used the gold/yellow watercolor, and a bit of the orange watercolor paint.

Royal Icing Outline

To really emphasize the stamped detail, I outlined the stamp lines with royal icing. Don't try to make the lines perfect. Keep them a bit messy and ragged looking. I think this makes them look a bit more realistic rather than sharp and perfect piping. This technique is perfect for non-pipers or inexperienced pipers. When the royal icing dried, I used the same soft gold luster dust and alcohol that I used for the bottom tier to paint over the lines. Again, if the paint is uneven or messy, totally ok and fits this style of cake.