
Cactus & Succulent Cake
Steps involved
Make cake layers
Make buttercream
Set buttercream aside for piping
Assemble and ice cake
Color buttercream for piping
Pipe roses, cacti, and succulents - freeze them
Add frozen plants to cake
Add dots and flowers to cacti
READ BEFORE CONTINUING: The following recipes are scaled to make the cake pictured above -- a 4 layer cake made with 6-inch round cake layers. If you wish to make a smaller cake, please scale down these recipes.
recipes used
1.5 - 2 batches Italian meringue buttercream
I made this buttercream vanilla flavored by adding 1 tablespoon of vanilla to my 1.5x batch (can add less or more to taste)
I always like to have extra buttercream rather than not enough, so if you're not sure how much to use, I would recommend 2
Colors used
To get these colors, I used Wilton's Color Right Food Coloring System.*
For the cake layers:
Yellow: 1 drop
Brown: 1 drop
Yellow: 1 drop
For the icing:
Pink Icing (rose):
Pink: 2 drops
Brown: 1 drop
Orange Icing (rose):
Orange: ~2 drops
Green 1 (succulent):
Blue: 1 drop
Yellow: 1 drop
Brown: 1 drop
Green 2 (succulent):
Blue: 3 drops
Yellow: 5 drops
Brown: 3 drops
Dark Green (cacti):
Blue: 11 drops
Yellow: 17 drops
Brown: 9 drops
Orange: 1 drop
Black: 2 drops
Bright Pink (cactus flower):
Pink: 1 drop
Supplies/tools
To find the tools I use for almost every cake I make and decorate (including pans, cake boards, icing smoothers, etc.), click here.
The supplies/tools below are specifically for decorating this cake, which I used in addition to the ones in the link above.*
*Some of these links may be affiliate. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. I earn a small amount from some purchases, however, this does not affect my recommendations.
Decorating the cake
After the cake has been assembled and iced:
You'll need the following tips (links to products are above in the Supplies/Tools section:
Wilton 8B (cacti)
Wilton 224 (cacti flowers)
Ateco 101 and/or 103 (roses)
Ateco 352 ("pointy" succulents)
Ateco 80 ("curved leaf" succulents)
Flower nail (Ateco 907)
Optional: Ateco 2 (cacti dots)
Cut small squares of parchment to use on flower nail.
Pipe a dot of icing onto the flower nail and refer to video here to see how to pipe each plant.
Remove parchment with plant attached and put on a sheet tray. Continue until you've piped all of the desired plants.
Freeze plants until hard to the touch.
Attach plants to cake using a small dot of buttercream to adhere them. If plants start to thaw before you can place them on the cake, put them back in the freezer to firm up before continuing.
Add flowers and dots to cacti.
Slice and enjoy :)
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