With this buttercream flowers cake, you can have your flowers and eat them, too! It’s a simple chocolate cake frosted with American buttercream and topped with buttercream piped flowers.
A bouquet of flowers is great. They’re beautiful, they smell lovely, and it’s such a sweet gesture when you are gifted one. Unfortunately, you can’t eat it. I have a solution. With this buttercream flowers cake, you can have your flowers and eat it, too!
Whether you’re celebrating Mother’s Day, birthday, retirement, new baby, or surviving Mondays, a cake is always a good idea. When it comes to a labor-intensive cake like this, feel free to use a boxed cake mix. No judgment here. We all do it.
Even after culinary school (and the hundreds of cakes I’ve made over the years), I have no problem with cake mix. If it makes you feel better, you can easily doctor up cake mixes to make it your own. Just don’t use canned frosting. That stuff is disgusting. Whipping up a batch of American buttercream is ridiculously easy.
How to make buttercream flowers cake
This starts off just like any standard cake. I used my go-to chocolate cake recipe and paired it with a super simple American buttercream.
Ingredients :
Chocolate Cake
2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1 Tablespoon instant espresso powder
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon fine sea salt
1/2 cup coconut oil, melted
1 1/4 cup granulated sugar
2 large eggs, room temperature
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2/3 cup whole milk, room temperature
1 cup sour cream, room temperature
PLEASE USE THE NEXT PAGE BUTTON FOR THE INSTRUCTIONS
American Buttercream
1 1/2 cup unsalted butter
7 cups sifted powdered sugar
1 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 pinches of fine sea salt
2 Tablespoons whole milk
food gel colors, as needed
Instructions:
Chocolate Cake :
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Line three 6-inch round cake pans with parchment paper. Lightly grease and set aside.
Whisk together flour, cocoa powder, espresso powder, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Set aside.
In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, mix together coconut oil, sugar, eggs, and vanilla until combined. On low speed, alternate adding the dry flour mixture and milk. Add about 1/3 of the flour mixture, followed by half of the milk. Add another 1/3 of flour, followed by the remaining half of milk. Scrape down the bowl as needed to ensure thorough mixing. Add sour cream and remaining flour. Mix until combined and there are no longer any dry streaks of flour.
Divide batter among prepared cake pans. Level batter. Bake for 25-28 minutes until a toothpick inserted in the center of the cake comes out clean. Allow cake to cool in pan for 5 minutes before unmolding. Allow cakes to cool to room temperature on a wire rack.
American Buttercream:
In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment (or using a hand mixer), cream together butter, powdered sugar, vanilla, and salt. Beat until smooth. Add milk to adjust consistency.