Succulent & Cacti Naked Cake

I've been wanting to learn to do flowers and succulents in buttercream frosting, because I've always found piping to be a bit intimidating.  As I've grown more confident in my ability to make good-tasting cake and frosting, I've spent the past couple of years focused on making my cakes look more well-stacked, level, and decorated.

photo by Allison

My friend was organizing a baby shower for another one of our work friends, and a naked cake with succulents and cacti totally fit the bill.  The mom-to-be is a plant lady, so it was the perfect excuse to try out something new in decorating!  I used Wilton gel food colors (Moss Green and Leaf Green for the plants) and some videos from Wilton to get started, then just went to YouTube and typed in "buttercream succulent" and watched techniques.

photo by Allison

I screwed up quite a few of them, but the ones that didn't find their way into my mouth (emotional eaters, I see you) ended up on little pieces of parchment paper to go into the freezer.  Freezing them really helped firm them up for when I placed them on the cake itself!  It also helped divided up the work so I could get this done on a weeknight.

I'm SO pleased by how this cake turned out.  I'm an amateur baker and decorator with no training, just figuring things out as I go.  But I love to bake as a sort of love language, so I'm game to try new things.  My favorite professional to follow is Minette Rushing, who I met during my time in Savannah.

I'm pleased as Punch with how this cake turned out!