Brush Embroidery Cake

I've seen brush embroidery techniques done on cookies so I wanted to try it on a cake. After watching tutorials and such I decided to give it a go. As you can see, my first attempt at this went surprisingly well. What a beautiful cake!

The brush embroidery was made using a small flat square brush with short stiff bristles. I tried different sizes and chose a smaller brush for more control. The consistency of the royal icing is very important. Too thick gives you a hard line to brush and too soft leaves you with a runny mess. To make things easier I used CK products royal icing mix rather than making my own. I used tip no.3 on this cake but most people use no 2. Use whatever works for you. After piping a flower with the desired number of petals, dampen your brush and brush the royal icing into the petal. Brush it in a second time to give it more of an "embroidered" look or more until the desired effect is achieved. Here's a close up of a flower....It takes time to do this. Practice on wax paper first until you're comfortable to do it on a cake.

I was a little hesitant to leave out the sugar flower. I just love how gumpaste flowers complete the look of a cake. In fact, I had a gumpaste Peony ready as a topper but I wanted to create something that could be as beautiful without one. By continuing the technique on top of the cake there was no need for a topper.

Brush embroidery is a technique I'm certain I'd use repeatedly. Another skill learned and surprised by my ability yet again. Oooh yes....nothing like a beautiful cake to make my day!