Daisy Pots

Make adorable daisy pots. These are great to use for a daisy wedding theme or summer wedding theme.
 
This mini wedding cake is a unique a thank you gift. Or use this floral wedding cake as your table center pieces.

Make the cake a least a day before you need them. The daisy flowers can be made well in advance.

These lovely cakes on the left were made by Anita Jamal and are only a representation of how yours could look.

We have written some instructions to help you make your own cakes.  

Makes 12 cakes

What you need for the daisy pots

1/2 recipe of chocolate sponge mixture, see Victoria Sponge Recipe

100ml plain sugar syrup

500g white sugar paste

1 teaspoon tylo powder (this is a hardening agent and will also help to make the paste more flexible and stable).

Food colors (chocolate, yellow, moss green)

300g modeling paste

50g sieved apricot jam

250g Chocolate-flavored decoration icing

100g royal icing

12 timbale moulds

Wire cooling rack

Pastry brush

Plastic wrap

Daisy flower cutter and leaf cutters

Empty egg cartons

Small rolling pin

Small knife

Paper Piping Bag

How to make the daisy pots

1. To bake the sponges, preheat the oven to 180 C (350 F)



2. Grease 12 timbale moulds with the butter and then dust them with the flour, shaking out the excess.



3. Perpare the sponge mixture and then spoon into the prepared moulds. Only half fill the moulds.



4. Bake in the preheated oven for about 15 minutes. Allow the cakes to cool a little before removing from the moulds, then turn out and cool on the wire rack. Allow to cool completely before decorating.



5. Soak the tops of the cakes with sugar syrup using a pastry brush, then wrap in cling wrap and chill for at least 3 hours to firm them up.



6. For the flowerpots. Mix the white sugar paste with some brown food color until you achieve the color that you want.



7. Mix in the tylo powder, then wrap the brown paste in cling wrap and allow to rest for at least 1 hour.



8. To make the daisy flowers. Take ¨ù of the modeling paste and color it green and leave the remainder white. Wrap the pieces that you are not using in cling wrap.



9. Rub a little white vegetable fat over the work surface, this will prevent the modeling paste from sticking to it.



10. Pull off a small amount of the white modeling paste and roll it out thinly, use the daisy cutter to cut out the flowers. You will need about 5 daisies for each pot, more if you are using a small daisy cutter.



11. As you cut the daisies gently press each petal with the handle of a fine paint brush (or toothpick) to give the petals a light veining effect.



12. Before each flower dries lay them in the empty egg cartons and gently press the center to give a natural curved effect and let them dry (about 2 - 4 hours or overnight).



13. Once they are dry pipe the centers with yellow royal icing and leave to dry.



14. To make the flowerpots. When the cakes have chilled, bring the jam to the boil in a small pan, turn the cakes upside down brush the sides and tops with the jam.



15. Working on one cake at a time. Roll out some of the brown paste to about 3mm (1/8 inch) thick and lay it over the upside down cake. Using your hands smooth the brown paste over the cake, trim of the excess paste and leave the iced cakes to set for at least 4 hours, or until it feels firm to the touch.



16. Turn the cakes back over. You will now add the rim to the top of the pot. Roll out some more of the brown paste to the same thickness as before. Cut out 12 strips each about 1cm (1/2 inch) wide and about 15cm (6 inches) long (or long enough to fit around the top edge of the pot). You will have to work fast as they do dry quickly, make 2 or 3 at a time.



17. Lightly brush the top edge of the pot with a little water and stick the brown strip around it, making sure they meet at the end. If the strip is too long trim off the excess.



18. To make the top of the daisy pots, roll out a piece of the chocolate flavored sugar paste into a ball and then flatten it to give a slight dome shape. It should be large enough to cover the sponge which is still showing (i.e. the inside of the pot).



19. To secure the chocolate sugar paste to the cake; brush with a little hot jam to stick in place.



20. Using the above picture of the daisy pots as a guide; Pipe small dabs of royal icing on the top of the flowerpots to stick the daisies and leaves in place.



21. Make the Leaves. Using the green modeling paste roll it out thinly and cut out using the leaf cutter. Mark the leaves with veins.) While the leaves are still soft shape them in an attractive way and make sure that there are no gaps between the flowers and leaves.