SPRING WREATH CAKE

Spring Wreath Cake – how to make a buttercream wreath cake with little decorative touches like a bird’s nest, cherry blossoms, green berries and cookie moss. Beautiful for spring events like Easter, baby showers and Mother’s Day.

It seems as though I have a thing for Easter cakes. Over the last five years, I’ve made a new cake each spring specifically with the holiday in mind. It all started back in 2013 with my Speckled Egg Cake. That cake has definitely stood the test of time with so many of you making it! Then there was the Chocolate Bunny Cake and the Easter Basket Cake in 2014. The Cookie Moss Cake of 2015 is making a small cameo in today’s cake (you’ll see what I mean in the tutorial).  2016 was an off year but 2017 came back strong with this Blackberry Lime Cake. This year I wanted to create a new cake that works for Easter but ALSO for other spring events like bridal showers, baby showers, and Mother’s Day. And today’s cake definitely fits that bill! 

This cake is everything spring with a variety of leaves, berries, cherry blossoms, moss and even a bird’s nest filled with chocolate eggs. The mix of vibrant and muted greens creates a fresh backdrop for the little white blossoms. Yes if you’re wondering, cherry blossoms can be white! The three years we lived in Washington DC taught me a whole lot about cherry blossoms as I stalked the peak bloom each year, hoping to drag my family downtown at the perfect time for photos. There’s over 100 varieties of cherry trees that produce blooms from white with yellow centers to white with pink centers to full pink-on-pink. I chose to go with white and yellow simply because I liked the shade of the yellow mini eggs paired with all the green. And…. if we’re getting technical… a cherry blossom only has five petals, where most of my flowers have six. But I had the hardest time piping a five petal flower!

But that’s okay! The best part about this buttercream work is that it’s really forgiving. Which is definitely needed, as I’m no piping expert. But I’m really loving that buttercream has come back into the forefront over the last 4 years because it just tastes so much better than fondant. And who can possibly look at all the Korean buttercream flower cakes on Instagram and not long to be that talented!! Thank goodness for me — this cake is all about imperfect leaves and flowers — that when grouped together look more impressive than they really are. Which makes this a win for buttercream wannabes everywhere!