Did you know lychee flowers look like this? I had no idea until I decided to make this cake, and started researching on the internet. I had visions of some beautiful tropical bloom, with layers of petals in delicate shades – so I was pretty surprised when search after search kept throwing up images of these clusters of spiky little things! Once I was over my surprise I decided they’d be equally fun to make in buttercream, especially since the little spikes are quite fine, and would have to be free standing. Plus lychees are one of my favourite fruits, and so unusual with their blushing spiky exterior and succulent sweet translucent middle. So here we are, my lychee and lychee flower cake 🙂 The full tutorial for this cake is here:

If you’ve already watched, read on!

More information:

Buttercream recipe: My eggless Swiss Meringue buttercream – SEBC (or here if you prefer no protein powder versions)

Colours: I use a mix of natural and gel colours.  You can see my DIY natural colours video to learn how, or use a combination of similar gel or powder colours to get the same look.  I don’t recommend using any very liquid food colouring as it’ll probably make your buttercream split.

Before you start:  prepare a smooth iced 6″ cake.  If you don’t know how to ice a cake smoothly, I recommend using my tutorials here for a semi-naked cake plus recipe, and here for a fully iced (frosted) one.  My blog posts and videos should help teach you the most straightforward way to get a professional looking result.

Detailed Instructions:

The instructions you’ll need are below.  I didn’t use any piping tips for this at all, just my DIY leaf tip and piping cones.  If you want to know which brand I use specifically, head on over to my recommended products page.

Here’s everything, in order of appearance in the video:

1. Lychee fruits:
   • DIY piping cone or any large round tip
   • colours: turmeric & beetroot powder (you need a lot of turmeric for the right shade, so if you prefer the flavour of the buttercream to be unaffected use gel colours); red and orange gel colours
   • Pipe a domed oval shape in the pale brown colour, then add small “spikes” in red and orange buttercream. Freeze before dusting.
   • Dusting colour: poppy red: USA: buy here, UK: buy here
   • Fan brush: USA: buy here, UK: buy here
2. Blossoms: 
   • tip DIY piping cone,
   • colours: turmeric or yellow gel colour
   • pipe a small oval disc of buttercream on parchment paper then carefully pipe 5 or 6 vertical stamens coming out of it.  Make several, then freeze ready to place on the cake.
3. Branches:
   • DIY piping cone or a #5 tip: USA: buy here, UK: buy here,
   • colour: melted chocolate
   • pipe an abstract wreath of branches onto your cake.
4. Leaves:
   • DIY leaf tip,
   • colours: spirulina, turmeric and matcha (or green & yellow gel colours)
   • pipe leaves spaced around the branches, then position the frozen fruit and flowers around the wreath on top. Pipe small stamen heads on the tip of each flower stamen once assembled.

That should be all you need to know to make your own lychee & lychee blossom wreath cake! Stay tuned and subscribe to my channel to watch the next 3 buttercream fruit & flower cake tutorials coming up!

Subscribe to my channel

Check out my other videos: Visit my channel