How to Make a Palette Knife Flower Cake

I am always looking for fun ways to incorporate my art background into my life today. So I made my first palette knife flower cake!

That’s right. I decorated this flower cake using a palette knife!

A New Way to Decorate a Flower Cake

Wow. A cake decorated with a palette knife.

Some of you may be wondering what a palette knife is!

Did you know I painted for 8 years with oil and acrylic paints and used a palette knife exclusively?

So I decided to buy some new palette knives (that weren’t covered in paint) and see if I could ice a cake the same way I painted canvases.

I must admit I love the end result and this cake was really fun to make. I tried really hard to make it more impressionistic and not get too focused on making it perfect.

Of course, that was easy to do since it was a bit harder to paint with a palette knife on an iced cake than on a canvas! (The paint doesn’t go on as easily. But who cares, right?)

So What is a Palette Knife?

These are the palette knives I used. They are used for a lot of crafts and for painting. I like them because you can use the knife to add texture with paint (or frosting)! I probably didn’t need quite so many as I only used the four on the left. But they are very inexpensive and next time I will try some of the other ones!

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Buttercream Frosting

I used my buttercream frosting recipe but because of the heat (and the fact that our A/C was struggling), I added more powdered sugar. The frosting was melting a bit.

I mixed up four different shades of pink/orange and two shades of green for the flowers. I highly suggest you use food coloring made for frosting cakes that have many different shades of each color if you want to get shades as I used here. A simple box of primary colors won’t lead to these colors. Just mix the darkest color and lighten it for the different shades.

Once you frost the cake be sure to put it in the refrigerator for at least an hour. If you take a break, put it back in the refrigerator. It makes it much easier to add the flowers.

How to Make a Flower Cake with a Palette Knife

I love using 6″ or 8″ round pans for my cakes. I usually make three cakes so it is taller than normal.

• one -I made a gluten-free cake but you can make a homemade cake or use a mix. That is up to you.
• two -I always cut a piece of waxed paper, put it in the bottom of the cake pan, and then spray the sides with spray cooking oil. The cake pops out easily every time!
• three – Mix a double batch of frosting to ice the cake and mix the colors for the flowers.

I wanted to share my buttercream frosting recipe. The secret is the coconut milk. Of course, you can use milk or almond milk instead if you want.

I decided to decorate the cake with roses and rose buds. They are very easy to make and don’t need any detail. I love creating a painting that requires the viewer to process it. So I purposefully left the leaves, stems, and flowers somewhat unfinished.

Decorating the Flower Cake

• one – Scrape up a bit of frosting on the knife and gently lay it on the cake to make a petal.
• two – Add another color to the other side of the first petal.
• three – add the stem and leaves with green frosting.

Making a Full Rose with Frosting

• one – Add frosting to the cake in a circular motion
• two – add varying colors to add more petals.

Isn’t this a fun cake? You can make this too. And don’t forget to not worry about mistakes! Impressionism is a good thing. Even on a cake!

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