As you probably saw last week I piped a 7 cupcake bouquet of peonies!  I was actually quite nervous about uploading and posting the images as I thought that people would think they looked rough and ready!

That was actually what I was aiming for, as you know I don’t aim for perfection, I aim for realism.  So, whilst scrolling on Google for peony bouquets I came across an image and noticed just how stunning they were and I felt that the buttercream version I pipe is too round, flat and to be honest too neat.  

Well, to my amazement it went viral, 66.2k likes, 3.8k comments and 2.7k shares! WOW… I guess my plan worked.  

I will add, the technique I used for the new peony is exactly the same as my peony tutorial but I took a gamble and used a GG1062.  Now as you can imagine because it’s a much thinner nozzle than the 123 you will have to pipe a lot more petals but I think this is what makes them look more realistic.  Real peonies do have so many layers of petals and this nozzle achieved it perfectly.  I did however start with a mound of green buttercream in the centre so I could make the peony more bulbous.  As I said before the technique is exactly the same except for the outer petals, I angled the nozzle more outwards so as to get that last petal almost giving the impression of it opening.  I also used a different leaf nozzle!  I used the 113 this nozzle is completely useless when it comes to piping a neat leaf so for me this was what I wanted, an almost broken leaf look.  I lined my piping bag with my Vibrant Pink from my colour range on my shop then added olive green buttercream.  I piped the leaves by almost wrapping them over the peony petals.

Later that week I piped mini peonies with this new nozzle and found I actually didn’t like the look of this leaf so again decided to use the GG1062 to create a more round leaf that cuddled the petals of the peony.  This for me was a perfect adaptation and the results I think were fab.  Again, I lined the bag as with the 113 with my pink and then added olive green buttercream.

I hope this has helped and can’t wait to see all of your new and improved peonies in my feed.  

As always I love seeing your work in my feeds and I’m so proud of each and everyone of you.

We rock!!