Hummingbird Cake Topper with Fluffy Frosting Flowers
In today's video tutorial, you will learn to create a beautifully unique hummingbird cake topper complete with whimsical, fluffy frosting flowers!
The brightly colored peony & buds from today's tutorial are similar to flowers that we've demonstrated in another tutorial, however, we've simplified the process by using a frosting that is a variation of our high ratio recipe. We have listed it below.
I could pipe these flowers all day long and never get tired of it--these are truly some of my favorite flowers to create! The hummingbird is such a nice addition to the design, and with the anchor extending from the beak, the bird appears to be flying. Enjoy the tutorial!
Materials for Hummingbird Cake TOpper
Hummingbird Template
Gum Paste (or Fondant with Tylose Kneaded into it)
Exacto Knife or Sharp Knife
High Ratio Frosting (*altered as explained below)
18 gauge wire (or other sturdy gauge)
Drinking Straw for anchor/barrier
Black fondant for beak
Vodka or Lemon Extract (not lemon juice)
Piping Tips: Large Petal Tips: 403, 402 & also 2D, 4, grass tip 233
Coloring Gels: Wilton Rose, Lemon Yellow, Americolor Avacado Green (hydrangea) Hummingbird: I used Americolor Electric Green, Teal, Sky Blue, White, and Red Red (there can be lots of color variation here, don’t feel limited by this list) –
Pearl Dust- optional. I dusted the hummingbird with pearl dust as a final touch
Black Food Coloring Pen for eye (or improvise with coloring gel)
Misc: Toothpicks, parchment paper, small paint brushes, tip 104 for making feather impressions in bird (optional), turntable
High Ratio Shortening for Fluffy Flowers! We slightly altered the sugar & milk amounts from our usual High Ratio Frosting Recipe. In our other more detailed video on large frosting flowers, we featured a non-dairy whipped meringue frosting recipe. I love both recipes for piping these flowers, but we were happy to find that this high ratio recipe makes a great alternative (as it is quicker to make and seems a bit more stable) and the soft, billowy consistency is very similar. Enjoy!
Can't wait to watch this video and try this different icing recipe. I made fluffy flower cupcakes this weekend...so much fun!
Love it!
Looks great! The hummingbird is adorable!
I love this! Thank you =)
Looks so beautiful. ....I will try ???☺ thanks so much.
love the flowers and the hummingbird... :)
So cute and refreshing. I love butterflies and this hummingbird will be fun to try.
I am so happy that you continue with buttercream cakes because so many cake artists are not skilled in buttercream. We need to keep piping buttercream ALIVE and you are doing just that! Kudos to another wonderful cake Melissa!!
Oh Melissa thank you for this!Hummingbirds are one of my favorite things!I am so making this.And I have still to make these flowers look so nice!
Thank you all so much for your comments!! We really enjoyed making this! If you try it, we'd love to see! xo
Hello, just lovely. Is the cake frosted with same high ratio buttercream recipe as the flowers? Thanks in advance for your answer.
Hi yummy23- we did, but it's a softer version of high ratio frosting (softer than our usual version in the Recipes section). This version has about half the sugar as we normally use and a bit less liquid. The result is a nice, soft, fluffy frosting, but it doesn't crust as firm and so the Viva method doesn't work quite as well. If you are needing the frosting to crust, you can reserve some of your frosting for the flowers, and then mix in some additional powdered sugar until you reach your desired consistency. I hope this helps!
Melissa I made this frosting today and had success with those flowers.Well not perfect,the edges are kind of rough but I was pleased.(I posted a pic)Two questions for you.Can I freeze this as I do American buttercream?And have you made it with Crisco?The only High ratio I find here(in Canada)is at Bulk Barn and it looks discolored,I dont totally trust it from bulk like that,I may be wrong.Thats what I used today just to practice but not sure I want to serve it to people.Maybe its safe I dont know.I suppose if I use Crisco its then not HR.I want an easy recipe for these flowers!!