Would Anyone be Interested in a Baking Thread?

I’m trying to learn how to make buttercream flowers. I think I have roses down pretty good (needs work, but hey! They look like roses!) There are a ton of other flowers out there that people are putting on cakes and I want in! I bought a book on the subject and set to work.

I’ve learned a few things:

1. Don’t let the frosting get too warm! Holding the piping bag in your hot little hand heats the butter in the frosting right up and makes it almost impossible to use. Use small amounts of frosting and refrigerate while you are doing other things. I found it best to switch colors often — in different piping bags — and refrigerate the bags I wasn’t using.

2. The type of frosting matters. Buttercream works best because it’s so stiff. Softer frostings just don’t hold the shape. You can write with a softer frosting, but for flowers...not so much. Instead of roses, you get blobs. Sadly, the better tasting frostings are just no good for this type of decorating. That’s why wedding cakes taste so awful, I suppose.

3. The freezer is your friend. The best tip I found was to stick a small square of parchment paper on the flower nail and pipe the flower on it. Slide the paper with flower off the nail and onto a small cookie sheet. Freeze the flowers for 10 to 15 minutes until nice and firm. The flowers should be solid enough that you can peel them right off the paper with your fingers and stick ‘em where you want. I also found this helps for the novice (me!) to be able to move them around once they were placed on the cake. Room temperature flowers have to live where you first put them.

4. The lazy Susan is a genius invention. I got one for cake decorating at Michael’s for about $15 (pictured under the cake in the top picture). It’s a cheap one — made of a slightly flimsy plastic and feels like it will break fairly easily — but I wanted to try it out. You guys, it makes cake frosting and decorating so much easier! I used it for some of the cupcakes in the above picture, namely the ones I piped directly onto the cakes. You stick the cupcake in the center of the lazy Susan and spin it with one hand while you pipe with the other. I find the whole gadget so useful I’m seriously considering shelling out for a higher quality one.

5. YouTube has a ton of video tutorials on flower making that are very helpful. I really don’t know how anyone did anything before the internet, tbh.

6. My kitchen is generally a disaster area once the cake is finished. I mean, multiple bowls for different frosting colors, separate utensils, piping bags, piping tips, blobs of frosting, powdered sugar, and yikes! Plan for cleanup time is all I’m saying.

This is definitely an ongoing project and I am little more than a rank amateur at this point. But I’m having fun and my friends and co-workers aren’t mad about eating my experiments. 

So, my question to the crowd is: are you baking anything? Also, would anyone be interested in a baking themed open thread on the regular or semi-regular? A place to share recipes and tips?

Updated to add: So, I sat on this diary for 2 weeks thinking no one would be interested and look at that! Recommended! Thanks, you guys! I’m grateful that I’ve been allowed to join this community and for how kind everyone here is. You all rock!