Flower Pot Cake (How to Make)

🧾Supplies Required

• Cake - the flower pot was carved out of 2 layers of pound cake measuring 4 inches in diameter. 
• Buttercream - I used vanilla buttercream to fill the cake as well as to crumb coat it.
• Fondant - I used Satin Ice fondant and tinted it with a very small amount of brown and black gel paste colors. 
• Cardboard - I used cardboard to cut out 2 circles which I used as a guide to carve the flower pot.
• Chocolate sprinkles - I used chocolate sprinkles as the soil in the flower pot.
• Gum paste roses - I used store-bought roses for this project. The flowers were originally white, and I dusted them into dark purple roses. Click here to see how I dusted these flowers from plain white flowers to dark purple ones. You can also make your own gum paste roses.
• Lollipop sticks - I used these sticks to prevent avoid poking the wired flowers directly into the cake.

👩‍🍳How to Make

Step 1: Prepare the Gum Paste Roses and Flower Pot Template

I prepared the flowers in advance. These were plain white roses and I dusted them into a deep purple shade with petal dust. Click here to learn how to dust the flowers.

I also prepared the cardboard templates in advance. I drew 2 circles, one in the same diameter as the cake, i.e., 4 inches and the other slighter smaller, i.e. 3 inches in diameter. I folded each circle into 4 and poked a hole right in the center.

Step 2: Bake and Carve the Cake

Next was the cake. I baked 2 cakes in 4 inch round pans. The cakes were about 1.75 inches high each. Once baked and cooled, I leveled the tops.

And then I carved the cakes to form the shape of a flower pot. To do that, I made a structure as in the image below. I placed the larger cardboard template on a drinking glass and inserted a wooden skewer in the center hole.

I then poked both my cakes through the skewer.

To carve the cake into a flower pot shape, I placed the smaller cardboard template on top of both the cake layers as shown. Using the cardboard templates as a guide, I carved the sides of the cake.

Step 3: Crumb Coat and Cover with Fondant

Once the carving was done, I lifted the top layer, spread some buttercream, and then put it back on the first cake layer. I smoothed excess buttercream as shown.

Next, I lifted the cake off the glass, removed the cardboard templates and the skewer. I placed in on a turntable and crumb coated the cake with buttercream. 

After the crumb coat, I covered the cake with brown fondant. I trimmed off excess fondant and then turned the cake over. 

Step 4: Add the Chocolate Sprinkles

Next, I attached a strip of fondant all around the top with a damp brush. Following that, I filled the top generously with chocolate sprinkles.

Step 5: Attach the Flowers

Once the flower pot was done, I moved on to the flowers. Since the flowers were wired, I did not want the wire to go directly into the cake. To ensure that, I used lollipop sticks.

I inserted the wire of each wired flower into one lollipop stick. Only then did I poke the flowers into the cake. This way, there was no direct contact of the wires with the cake.

I arranged the roses in a circular pattern on the outside and then filled the center of the pot with 3 roses. That filled most of the flower pot, leaving only tiny spaces in between the roses.

I filled those spaces with filler flowers. And I also added some leaves in random order among the flowers.

And this was how my mini flower pot cake looked like upon completion.