Buttercream flower cupcake cones

If you’d like to impress with something truly different this summer, why not try these fun and oh-so-beautiful buttercream bouquet cupcake cones?

Buttercream flower bouquet cupcake cones

Brought to you by The Sugarcraft Contessa

You can bake your batter straight inside or why not turn them into fantastic cake pops by mixing leftover cake trimmings with a little buttercream and filling the cones ready to decorate? From wedding favours to garden parties, the possibilities are endless with these buttercream flower cupcake cones…

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Top tips!

Left-handed people will need to mirror the instructions when using tip 120 – 3 o’clock becomes 9 o’clock, 6 o’clock becomes 12 o’clock and clockwise becomes anti-clockwise, etc.

As with all cupcake cones, these are best enjoyed soon after preparation. Cones can become soft after several hours/in humid conditions.

You will need

Edibles

Food colouring for sugarpaste
750g buttercream
Waffle cones or flat-bottomed ice-cream cones
Cake mix of your choice (enough for 12 cupcakes)

Equipment

Icing nail
Flower scissors
Drinking glass
Piping bags
Tapered and straight spatulas
120, 352 and 225 piping tips
Study paper cups
Small, sharp scissors
Squares of baking paper (optional)
Cone baking rack (if using waffle cones)
Baking tray

Instructions

Place waffle cones into oven safe cone baking rack. Fill 2/3 full with cake batter of your choice and bake for 20-25 minutes or until cooked through. Allow to cool completely. Alternatively, flat bottomed cones on a tray work well if you don't have a cone rack.

Add a large mound of buttercream to the top of each cone and smooth with a spatula.

Using a 120 tip, open your bag out over a glass and line up the two ends of the tip with the seams inside the bag. With a tapered spatula, draw a line of white buttercream along the seam which lines up with the narrowed edge of the tip. Fill with the coloured buttercream of your choice.

Position your bag at 3 o’clock. Tilt the tip to 45 degrees with the white seam of buttercream facing upwards.

To pipe your bud, rotate the nail anticlockwise as you apply steady pressure. Lift up a little as you pipe to get a nice ribbon of icing, then stop squeezing and keep turning until it breaks away.

For your petals, lower your bag to 90 degrees/horizontal against the nail. Beginning at 6 o’clock, twist the nail clockwise to pipe your first petal, covering half of the bud and finishing at 3 o’clock.

Repeat for the second petal, beginning halfway along the first petal so they overlap. Stop here for small buds.

For a full flower, pipe a third petal. Begin piping halfway along the second petal and overlap round onto the first petal to finish.

For larger flowers, keep overlapping each petal until you reach the desired size (five petals works well for the next row. Don’t go too big or you won’t be able to use your icing scissors.

Open your icing scissors wide. ‘Bite’ into the base of your flower and slide it gently off the nail. Position on your cone with a tapered spatula and add more flowers. (Don’t worry if it looks messy! Leaves are wonderful at hiding imperfections.)

To pipe leaves, add tip 352 to a fresh bag and fill with green buttercream. Position your bag with the ‘v’ of the tip to the sides – just like a bird’s beak.

Squeeze, allow the leaf to build, stop squeezing and gently pull away.

For drop flowers, add tip 225 to a fresh bag and fill with the colour of your choice. Place the tip in gentle contact with leaves so the flowers will stick. Squeeze. STOP squeezing and THEN pull away – this will give you crisp flowers.

To make simple holders, cut a 6-pointed star shape into the base of a sturdy paper cup with a small pair of scissors. Insert the cones well until secure and stable (at least ¾ down inside the cup if transporting).