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The drop flower tip/nozzle can easily turn a cake into a spectacular visual delight

Published 18 October 2012 by Francine Appleby

The drop flower tip/nozzle can easily turn a cake into a spectacular visual delight!

 

 

Issue 25 of cake decorating came with the leaf tip/nozzle and drop flower tip/nozzle, visit page 12 of issue 25 for detailed guidance on how to make a lovely drop flower cake. I shall be trying out that decoration of cake very soon and will provide a recipe and my own take on it for you in a future post.

　

I decided that I would try out the drop flower tip/nozzle as I have never seen one like this before and it has been missing from my collection. Luckily it came free with the magazine and I was delighted to get started with the piping and practising. Having mentioned my collection of cake decorating tools and equipment that is steadily growing since receiving the magazines, I had a good collection to begin with but it's now getting to be an extensive collection of tips/nozzles, stencils, moulds and more! There is so much you can do with cake decorating and it's great to be able to learn along the way and gain more knowledge, ideas and equipment too!

　

Back to the piping and practising, when looking inside the tip/nozzle there is a small metal rod that is some how attached inside to the end of the tip/nozzle. I understand that this is so that when using a coupler with a notched edge, the rod in the tip would be lined up with the notch on the coupler to stop it from moving or rotating unnecessarily. Initially I had thought it was to prevent the flow of icing for some reason or other, but upon researching the answer, it seemed to be that it was for the purpose of using it with a coupler, so mystery solved there hopefully. I didn't need a coupler and opted to use the tip/nozzle placed straight into a piping bag and filled it with a pink buttercream frosting and was ready to go.

　

I found that it did need the right consistency of frosting, not too thick and not too watery, as well as some practice was needed to get the perfect looking drop flower as you can see by my photos. I also found that other designs and patterns could be made with little effort. I piped a double star where there is one larger one for the base and another smaller one piped immediately on top, just off centre to give a double star effect.

　

The best option for a single drop flower is to keep the piping bag pointing straight and start to pipe applying some pressure and then releasing the pressure very quickly whilst also swiftly pulling the piping bag up and away to get a neat tip finish to each drop flower.

　

I of course had to test to see what other patterns could be created and there were a few good border type designs as well, maybe useful too to cover the entire top surface of a larger cake.

　

You can create different colour shades using paler blends of the same colour to create a graduated effect with colour. You could pipe them two tone, using two shades of frosting or icing with or without a twin pocket piping bag. I decided I would use pink buttercream frosting and then use edible dusting powders and a clean and very small tipped paint brush to define the edges, add dots and various colours. You could get really creative with how you decorate these little miniature drop flowers and be as bold in colour as you like. I think the blue on the pink with the highlights of silver would look really great on a cake and will be getting some of these little blue and silver numbers ready for a big cake soon. Look out for next week's post with more on techniques including a recipe also!