Elegant Fondant Appliques
Today, I'm going to show you how to create beautiful fondant appliques for your cakes. We've done several tutorials for elegant cakes over the years, and this is one of our favorites!
There are all sorts of options available to cake decorators for embellished appliqués, including lace molds.
However, today's cake tutorial will demonstrate how you can achieve elegance with the simplest of tools.
You can do variations of this design for any size or style of cake. It would make a beautiful wedding cake, bridal shower cake, or even birthday cake design! Change up the colors for a more whimsical feel. We hope that you enjoy it!
Table of Contents
Materials
The cakes in our tutorial are dummies frosted with High Ratio Frosting. Sizes: 8/6/4 inch. (I've only used this method on cakes frosted in crusting buttercreams or covered with fondant)
Liz Marek Fondant: This is my fondant of choice and so this is what I used for my flowers. You can use whatever you'd like with good results. If you are using a very soft fondant, you may wish to knead in a little gum paste or tylose powder to help the cut outs set more quickly and also so you can roll them more thinly.
Crusting Buttercream: I used High Ratio frosting (from our Recipes section) to frost the cake as well as to outline the fondant flowers and attach to the cake.
Misc. blossom/daisy cutters (Mine were from a PME blossom plunger set, Wilton Daisy set, and a few misc. metal cutters.)
Sugar Pearls: I used Wilton Sugar Pearls for my centers as well as marble-sized balls of fondant which I brushed with pearl dust.
Pearl Dust/Pearl Spray-- I sprayed my accents with Wilton Pearl Spray before placing onto the cake. I also used a little Super Pearl dust here and there on other accents. You can use one, both, or none...I just like a little shimmer!
"Glue" of choice: I used piping gel to glue the fondant centers to my flowers.
Wafer Paper & Butterfly Punch: This is optional but a nice touch. My butterflies were created with a punch that I bought from my local Michaels.
Floral Wire (I used 32 gauge) & Cocktail Straw: to anchor your "flying" butterfly.
Misc: Cake Boards beneath each tier cut to size, supports/dowels of choice, sturdy cake base/pedestal.
Fondant Appliques: Additional Notes
*As I mentioned in the video, you may find it easier to outline your flowers while they are still on the parchment paper, especially if you are not used to piping on the front side of your cakes (kind of a funny angle to get used to!).
If you go this route, you would want to do your piping in advance with either royal icing or crusting buttercream with plenty of time for it to set firm for easier handling & placement.
Although our cake is frosted with buttercream, this technique would work beautifully on fondant covered cakes as well!
Cake Recipes
There are so many cake recipes that would be perfect for an elegant cake like this. Some of our go-to recipes are Vanilla Velvet Cake, White Velvet Cake, Almond Cake, and our homemade Chocolate Cake.
You can find so many more recipes in our Cake Recipes section, which includes cake recipes from scratch as well as cake mix recipes.
More Elegant Cakes
We have even more elegant cake designs to share with you! Some of our favorites are our Elegant Chocolate Flowers Cake, Looped Ribbons of Buttercream Cake, Elegant White Flowers in Buttercream cake, and Palette Knife Buttercream Roses Cake.
Don't miss our full collection of cake decorating tutorials!
Enjoy the Video
I have what might be an unusual question, but I have to ask..When you decorate with the fondant flowers or even royal icing flowers, how do you cut the cake? Do the flowers have to be removed first and then cut? I have not seen this done, so I am really curious. I am making my son's wedding cake and want to know what to expect. Thanks, Melissa for such outstanding teachings with videos. Your cakes are aways so beautiful. You make everything look so easy, it gives us the encouragement to try.
Very pretty.
Thanks @Maryanne & MsGF! --
@Maryanne~ As far as cutting the cake, it depends on the design and how firm the decorations are, and how firmly they are attached.
For this cake, since the fondant decorations are on buttercream, most likely the knife will catch the flowers and push them downward as you slice.
If the flowers were securely attached to a fondant covered cake, they could likely be sliced through.
Large royal icing flowers would need to be removed because they set so firm, as well as gum paste.
I would just be prepared that you may need to pull one off here or there, but it shouldn't be a big issue. ;0)
Melissa, It is so beautiful! Can not wait to try it with royal icing for a dummy cake I will be doing for inside of my bird cake! :) Thank you so much for your creativity!
Can't wait to try this beautiful decoration onto my cake.
I have learned a lot from this video,thank you and thanks to your mom.
God blessed you both...
Simply breathe taking!! Well done!
Great Ideas! Thanks for all the practical tips such has the easiest way to apply the pearls to the centers of the flowers. I was certainly doing this the hard way!!!
This cake is very beautiful. Thanks Melissa.
My computer is down so I'm trying to download on my smartphone but this link won't open up
AWESOME as usual. You and your Mom are such a great team! Love the look of this cake. I've been working with wafer paper and bought an edible ink printer. It is the best thing ever. Prints on the wafer paper and icing sheets like a dream.
Melissa,
The idea for this cake is lovely. Can you put these fondant cutouts on a Swiss Meringue Buttercream frosted cake?
So pretty! Wow!