The 3 Elements You Need for a Perfect Floral Wreath Cake

Floral wreaths aren’t going anywhere soon! You can spot these sugar flower decorations at weddings, birthdays and even baby showers. Recently, we created a sugar flower floral wreath cake that we absolutely love, so we thought we’d share our how-to here.

How to make a floral wreath cake

Materials:

• Iced and tiered cake
• Pre-made wired sugar leaves, blossoms, flowers, berries and foliage
• Ingenious Edibles Safety Seal
• Long-nose pliers
• Strong scissors or wire cutters

Step 1:

If you’re going to have a design, monogram or script in the middle of your floral frame, now is the time to add it. For this wedding cake we hand painted “we do” in a shimmering edible copper paint. 

Tip: Take some time to decide where the center and front of your cake is. It’s tempting to just pick a side and start there, but later one you may notice that your center is a little off. 

Step 2:

Prep all your wired pieces. When it comes to creating sugar foliage, 3 is always a great number to plan your design:

1. Start with one item that’s a bit fancy or more of a show stopper. We opted for the copper paint leaves you see above.
2. Then, decide which type of leaves you want to use for the majority of the wreath. These should be a little plainer so that they don’t distract from your show stopper. Eucalyptus is our favorite filler foliage. It’s quick to make, a little quirky to look at and it fills in any gaps perfectly!
3. Finally, choose one additional type of filler leaf to fill in the wreath.

Step 3:

Coat the ends of all your pieces with with Safety Seal wax. Even if it’s legal in your country or state to add wire and floral tape straight into the cake, it’s good practice not to. There may be guests who are allergic to the nickel in floral wire or the latex in floral tape.

Step 4:

The safest and most effective method is to attach your wreath to the cake is in stages. You’ll to run into trouble if you make your wreath and then try to attach it to your cake. 

Begin with any focal flowers or accent pieces. If you’re using flower, we suggest attaching the three in a triangular formation, spacing them out equally. This helps make an instantly attractive composition.

For accent pieces like our copper painted leaves, we used two “branches.” One branch curved toward the top of the cake and the other curved toward the bottom to help create the shape of the wreath.

Tip! The best thing about working with wired leaves and petals is that you can manipulate them to sit or stretch out different ways. Be sure to curve your wires before you place them on the cake, then tweak as needed.

Step 5:

Add your main foliage, continuing to build the shape of the wreath. We love using sugar eucalyptus. The leaves are wired and spread in opposite directions so they’re forgiving if you have to make any tweaks.

Try to match both sides of your wreath. Whenever we add a eucalyptus spring on one side, we mirror it on the other.

Step 6:

If you have any obvious gaps in your wreath, this is where your second filler — whether it’s leaves, berries or blossoms — comes in handy. Use these pieces to help cover up any holes or unsightly wire. 

Design idea! You can also add in fondant butterflies or gum paste birds to your wreath to help hide wires as well as add to the look.

Step 7:

Finish with more foliage and berries where needed. We added a tiny pop of a brighter green to our wreath with a small number of rose leaves.

Have you ever made a floral wreath cake?