Here, you’ll find 16 beautiful flower cake ideas perfect to celebrate a birthday or any kind of occasion, including easy designs with instructions to recreate them. If you’re looking for inspiration to place an order with your local baker, or you want to recreate one of these cakes yourself, you’re in the perfect place.
How to find a flower cake idea suited to your cake-decorating level?
I’ve come up with a system. The cake ideas are presented to you according to their level of difficulty. There are three categories :
What Are Beginner Cake Ideas?
These are easy cake ideas. If you’ve never decorated a cake before (or only did it once or twice), these are the cakes that you should pay attention to.
- What you’ll find: Beautiful cake ideas that only require basic cake decorating techniques. This is a great place to start your journey.
What Are Intermediate Cake Ideas?
Low Intermediate Baker: If you are confident that you’ve mastered the cake decorating basics, such as how to smooth a cake, but feel like you still have a lot of techniques to learn apart from this foundation, this category is perfect for you.
- What you’ll find: Cake ideas that require both basic decorating skills and one or two techniques that are a little bit more advanced. This is a great place to grow your cake-decorating skills.
High Intermediate Baker: If you’ve mastered both basic techniques and several more advanced cake decorating techniques, these cake ideas are made for you.
- What you’ll find: Stunning cake ideas that can be fairly challenging, but are a great place to get even better than you already are.
What Are Advanced Cake Ideas?
If you consider yourself an experienced cake decorator and have mastered most of the decorating techniques, including the use of fondant, then this is the perfect place for you.
- What you’ll find: Showstopping and challenging cake ideas, perfect to sharpen and maintain your skills.
The Grading System
Finally, I’ve also assigned a grade of difficulty to each cake inspiration: 1/5 being the easiest design and 5/5 being the hardest. The goal is to make the ranking the most accurate possible. You will find this to be particularly helpful if you happen to fall in the Beginner or the Intermediate Cake Ideas categories.
Growth Tip : This list is great a place to set goals about your cake decorating skills. Pin this post and come back later to tell us how far you’ve come in your cake decorating journey !
How to recreate these flower cake ideas?
What cake recipe should you use to make your perfect cake come true?
To recreate these cake ideas, you will need a trustworthy cake recipe. You have several options.
Adapt your favorite cake recipe.
There are a lot of ways to adapt a cake recipe. You mainly have four options to tweak your favorite recipe :
- You could change the flavor of your cake recipe: with citrus zest, the essence of your choice, or turn it into a chocolate or carrot cake for example.
- You could add a filling: a caramel sauce, a homemade flavored whipped cream, ganache, or buttercream.
- You could also add some texture: oreo bits, crumble crumbs, nuts, or fresh fruit for example.
- Finally, you could personalize your frosting.
Be careful, if you’re a beginner baker, having to figure out both your cake design and creating a new cake recipe could be overwhelming. Therefore, I always recommend taking your learning journey one step at a time.
Look for a cake recipe.
Where? You can ask friends, or family or simply look on the internet. You have to keep two things in mind though :
- The recipe has to be suitable for cake decorating, especially for cakes that require stacking or carving (intermediate and advanced cake ideas).
- Once again, if you’re a beginner baker, be careful not to put too much on your plate and choose a recipe suited to your current level.
Use my cake recipe recommendation.
Finally, you could try the delicious recipe I recommend. I firmly believe everyone should have a trustworthy chocolate cake recipe, and my chocolate cake with cream cheese frosting is both beginner-friendly and perfect for cake decorating. I’m sure you’ll love it.
What you will love about this recipe :
- It has a perfect chocolate flavor.
- It’s a really easy recipe, perfect for beginners.
- It has a great texture.
How to follow the instructions of the designs.
For the cake designs in the beginner category: I’ll provide written instructions on how to recreate the cake idea presented to you. Don’t hesitate to watch video tutorials about the basic techniques such as how to smooth a cake.
For the designs in the intermediate category: I’ll provide some guidance on how to perform the more complicated techniques.
For the advanced category: you are an experienced baker, at this point, and you will find great opportunities to put this experience to use. To be completely honest, I cannot make myself several cake ideas from the advanced category, so trust your abilities and go for it.
Find the perfect flower cake idea for your baking skills.
Growth Tip : If you aim to get better at cake decorating, you should choose a cake idea that feels sligthly above your current cake decorating level. Get out of your comfort zone !
Flower Cake Ideas For Beginner Bakers
Here, you’ll find 3 easy floral cake ideas perfect for beginner bakers.
Wild Flowers Cake
Difficulty Level: 1,5/5.
Flowers are the perfect cakes for beginner cake decorators as they can look stunning without requiring too much technique.
What you will need :
- Enough frosting to cover your cake.
- Clean fake flowers of your choice.
- Floral wire.
- Edible pearls.
How to recreate this cake?
- First, you must crumb-coat the cake to avoid any crumbs in your final design. Apply a thin and even coat of frosting with your offset spatula all around your cake.
- Smooth it with your bench scraper, holding it at a 45-degree angle on the cake while spinning your turntable. Your bench scraper isn’t supposed to move, only turn the table.
- It doesn’t have to be perfect as it only is the first coat. Chill the cake 20 to 30 minutes in the fridge (until your frosting sets).
- Then, apply a thicker coat of frosting and repeat the smoothing operation. Fill in any gaps and smooth the cake again. Repeat this operation until the cake looks smooth enough for you. Here, you’ll find a video tutorial of the covering process, if needed.
- Chill your cake in the fridge for 30 minutes or until your buttercream cover sets.
- Next, use a knife warmed with water to get sharp edges on your cake.
- Then, you’re going to stab your flowers on the cake, and simply lay some of them down on the top of your cake. For the standing flowers create a U shape around them using floral wire. Don’t cut it too short to be able to stab them in the cake, allowing the flower to stand.
- Finally, place your edible pearls.
What you’ve learned :
Learning how to frost a cake is an essential technique for any cake decorator. With the help of a few accessories, you can create unique cake designs like this one from the start.
Minimalist Floral Cake
Difficulty Level: 1/5.
Floral cakes are very versatile. For example, you can easily create elegant cake designs like this one.
What you will need:
- Enough frosting to cover your cake.
- Clean fresh roses (preferably organic) + floral tape.
- A golden cake topper.
How to recreate this cake?
- First, you must crumb-coat the cake to avoid any crumbs in your final design. Apply a thin and even coat of frosting with your offset spatula all around your cake.
- Smooth it with your bench scraper, holding it at a 45-degree angle on the cake while spinning your turntable. Your bench scraper isn’t supposed to move, only turn the table.
- It doesn’t have to be perfect as it only is the first coat. Chill the cake 20 to 30 minutes in the fridge (until your frosting sets).
- Then, apply a thicker coat of frosting and repeat the smoothing operation. Fill in any gaps and smooth the cake again. Repeat this operation until the cake looks smooth enough for you. Here, you’ll find a video tutorial of the covering process, if needed.
- Chill your cake in the fridge for 30 minutes or until your buttercream cover sets.
- Use a knife warmed with water to get sharp edges on your cake.
- Then, clean, dry, and wrap the stems of your roses in floral tape. Next place them on your cake.
- Finally, place your cake topper.
What you’ve learned :
As a beginner, simple techniques are your best friend as they allow you to create elegant cake designs.
Pink Flower Cake
Difficulty Level: 1,5/5.
You can also use your flower to create a flower wreath and create the perfect spring birthday cake.
What you will need :
- Enough frosting to cover your cake.
- Fresh or fake flowers + floral tape + floral wire.
- Edible pearls.
- A cake comb.
How to recreate this cake?
- First crumb coat and cover your cake with frosting as explained in the previous designs.
- Then, Place your angled spatula at the top of the side of your cake and start spinning the turntable while slowly moving down to recreate the texture.
- Then prepare your flowers using the floral wire as explained in this quick floral wreath cake tutorial and place them on your cake.
- Finally, place your edible pearls.
What you’ve learned :
There are literally a thousand ways to use flowers on a cake. Don’t hesitate to be creative with the flower types (make sure they’re nontoxic) and the flower placement.
Flower Cake Ideas For Intermediate Bakers
Here, you’ll find 8 floral cake ideas perfect for intermediate bakers.
Purple Flower Cake
Difficulty Level: 2,5/5 (Low-Intermediate)
You can embrace a bold floral aesthetic with this purple flower cake and its vibrant buttercream and flowers.
A little guidance
To recreate this bold cake design, you’ll need to know how to deepen your frosting’s color. You can also follow this wavy buttercream tutorial.
Cute Flower Cake
Difficulty Level: 2,5/5 (Low-Intermediate)
If you’d prefer a softer look, this cute flower cake will add a touch of sweetness to your celebration.
A little guidance
To recreate the fullness of the border, you’ll need to place your flowers over a buttercream border. Don’t hesitate to follow this quick rope buttercream border tutorial, if you’ve never done one before.
Floral Heart Cake
Difficulty Level: 2,5/5 (Low-Intermediate)
Or maybe you like trendy cake designs. In this case, you’ll adore this floral heart cake that will make for a perfect trendy centerpiece. Don’t hesitate to check out my other heart cake ideas.
A little guidance
If you don’t own a heart-shaped cake tin there’s no need to worry, you can easily follow this DIY heart cake tutorial.
Elegant Flower Cake
Difficulty Level: 3/5 (Intermediate)
If you want to elevate your event with a sophisticated cake design, this elegant flower cake will be a perfect fit.
A little guidance
If you don’t know how to recreate this beautiful design, you’ll need this fault line and this buttercream stencil tutorial.
Buttercream Flower Cake
Difficulty Level: 3/5 (Intermediate)
Or maybe you’d like to impress your guest with a full buttercream floral cake design.
A little guidance
To recreate this cake, you can follow this wildflower cake tutorial. You’ll mainly need a small round piping tip, but to make your own cake design just as showstopping, don’t hesitate to play with colors and different shapes of piping tips to create several types of flowers.
Doodle Flower Cake
Difficulty Level: 3/5 (Intermediate)
This charming doodle cake might seduce you if you’re looking for a playful floral cake design.
A little guidance
To recreate this kind of flower cake, you can inspire yourself with this palette knife flower cake tutorial. Make sure to use a way smaller piping tip and palette knife.
Blue Floral Cake
Difficulty Level: 3,5/5 (High-Intermediate)
If you want to showcase both an elegant and unique cake design, you’ll love this Blue Floral Cake.
A little guidance
To recreate this pattern effect, you’ll need white buttercream, and if you’ve never used a cake stencil you can follow this buttercream stencil tutorial.
Tiered Flower Cake
Difficulty level: 4/5 (High-Intermediate)
Tiered cakes are the perfect opportunity to impress your guests and unleash your creativity, as they offer more space to do so.
A little guidance
When making tiered cakes, you have to pay extra attention to the structure of the cake. Therefore, you should always use a sturdy cake board for each tier. You should also support the bottom tier with dowel rods or bubble tea straws cut to the height of the cake. Finally, you should ensure each tier is leveled before stacking them.
Flower Bouquet Cake
Difficulty level: 4,5/5 (High-Intermediate)
For all the romantics out there, yes flower bouquets are great but cake bouquets are just superior you have to admit. Be assured that such a stunning cake will make your occasion even more memorable.
A little guidance
Buttercream flowers can be fairly challenging, but a good place to start is with simple flowers. Don’t hesitate to follow these buttercream roses and buttercream wild flowers tutorials.
Flower Cake Ideas For Advanced Bakers
These 4 flower cake ideas will be perfectly suited to experienced cake decorators.
Square Floral Cake
Difficulty level: 5/5
If you like originality, square cakes are definitely the way to go. This floral version creates a unique birthday cake idea.
Floral Number Cake
Difficulty level: 5/5
Number cakes are also very trendy lately, and this floral version also makes for a very elegant cake design.
Painted Flower Cake
Difficulty level: 5/5
This mix of the vintage, renaissance, and coquette styles would make the perfect Instagramable birthday cake.
Colorful Flower Cake
Difficulty Level: 5/5
This pressed flower cake would also make a great fit for a spring birthday. Don’t hesitate to turn it into a one-tier cake if you’re hosting a small party.
If you’re looking for more cake ideas to recreate, check out these 17 elegant cakes for women, which also include tons of floral cake ideas or one of my other birthday cake ideas for children and adults.
Did you enjoy these flower cake inspirations? Sharing is caring!
Please let me know in the comments and/or tag me on Instagram @theperfectcakeidea. I’d love to see your creations. And, don’t forget to pin this post so you can come back to it.
Pin this post and come back to it later.
