Buttercream Poinsettia
David MacCarfrae presents finishing touches and creative ideas for Christmas cake decorating.
HOW TO PIPE A QUICK AND EASY POINSETTIA WITH DAVID CAKES
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A quick and easy decorative idea for Christmas Cup Cakes, Christmas Cookies, Yule Log or a last minute Christmas Cake… David Cakes free hand piping technique can be applied using Royal Icing, buttercream, fresh cream.. or even savoury cream mediums .. it’s up to you!
| Step 1 – Mix red, green and yellow colored icings (either royal icing, buttercream, fresh cream, etc.) |  |
| Step 2 – Fill a plastic disposable piping bag with some red icing and then take a pair of scissors and carefully cut a very small opening at the end of the piping bag. This will allow the excess air to deflate as you squeeze the icing down the bag. |
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| Step 3 & Step 4 – Then carefully cut the end of the piping bag with 2 X 45 degree incisions to create a piping tip. |
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| Step 5 – Now take hold of the piping bag in your right or left hand (which ever suits you) and position your the first finger of your other hand on the end of the piping bag to stabilize while gently squeezing out the icing. If you apply a ‘shimmy’ motion to your hand while piping you will achieve a more ruffled effect to the appearance of the poinsettia leaf. |
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| Step 6 – turning the flower (manually or with the use of a turntable), repeat this technique until you form the shape of your flower. Then add another set of smaller red leaves inside the outer set as shown to create the finished desired effect. |
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| Step 7 – Using a new disposable piping bag and green icing, repeat step 2 , step 3 and step 4, and this time pipe a very small green leaf into the center of the flower. |
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| Step 8 – Using another new disposable piping bag, fill with yellow icing. With a pair of scissors, simply cut a very small hole at the end of the bag. You can now pipe small dots into the center of the flower to represent the stamens.*DAVID CAKES TIP* – If you only have larger plastic disposable piping bags, you can cut the end of the bag to make it into a smaller one, which will allow you to pipe finer detailing more comfortably. |
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| Step 9 – Step 10 – If you wish to pipe flowers on say a chocolate yule log or on top of a Christmas cake, you can add additional piping embellishment by adding some green icing to the yellow piping bag. This is will give a variegated effect to piped vines and ferns that can add the finishing touches to your floral arrangement. |
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| Step 11 – Finally you can give a frosty snow effect to your flower by dusting icing sugar onto the finished floral creation. |
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*DAVID CAKES TIP* – If you use a tea strainer, the dusting will be finer than using a regular sieve. Tap the tea strainer gently which will give a light dusting rather than a full snow fall effect – it’s up to you!
*DAVID CAKES TIP* – Poinsettias piped with royal icing are best left to dry first before applying the icing sugar dusting. Dusting the icing sugar on wet royal icing will result in the sugar being absorbed by the wet icing.
*DAVID CAKES TIP* – Poinsettias piped with buttercream or fresh cream can be dusted with icing sugar once piped, but may be best dusted just before serving.
As with every David Cakes tutorial, he suggests you experiment first to find out which way works best for you!
“A very Merry Cake Decorating Christmas to you!!” David 🙂
For more information about David Cakes free hand piping techniques, visit http://www.davidcakes.co.uk/