{DIY Tutorial by Jessica Kirkland}
Offering gorgeous desserts to your guests is always fun. However, being able to do it without slaving in the kitchen and using cake decorations that cost only pennies is the icing on the cake! I am so excited to be sharing with you a super fun DIY I created that’s a piece of cake!

Using a few different techniques, we are about to turn this plain $8 grocery store bakery cake into a custom creation that’ll WOW people. You yourself will be “wowed” at how simple the process really is, and I guarantee you’ll be inspired to try your hand at creating your own creative masterpieces!

This DIY is perfect for anyone on a budget. (and who isn’t these days?) Think wedding, birthday, baby or bridal showers! And don’t think you can’t spruce up some cupcakes using the same techniques included here.

Keep reading for all of the details on how to recreate this gorgeous cake. You’ll be on your way from ordinary to extraordinary in no time.

Material Needed

• 5″ grocery store bakery cake (plain white frosting)
• 2″ scallop circle punch
• low-temp hot glue gun
• toothpicks
• one piece of plain 8.5 x 11 white paper or cardstock (makes 12 flowers)
• acrylic paint (I used three different colors)
• paint brushes (or even q-tips would work fine for this project)

THE TOOTHPICK FLOWERS

Create up to 12 circles (flowers) from your paper using your 2″ scallop circle punch.

Poke a toothpick through the center of your paper circle and slide the circle up to the tip of the toothpick – leaving approx. 1/4″ inch of the toothpick showing.

Pinch the underside of the paper circle against the toothpick causing the petals of the flower to form upward. (there’s no rhyme or reason to this…just keep pinching and pushing until you achieve something that resembles a small unopened flower).

Three dimensional flowers are created by pulling/folding/bending the flower petals down a bit and adjusting them until you like the way it looks.

If you prefer to work with flattened flowers, simply turn your toothpick flower upside down and push down on the underside of the flower petals against a hard surface.

Tip: Do not fret over flower petals being perfectly symmetrical. And be prepared for the outcome of each flower to be slightly different. That’s what you want.

Once you have your flowers formed, it’s time for the hot glue gun.

While spinning your toothpick, add a small amount of hot glue to the underside of the flower where the paper and toothpick meet. After the glue has cooled down but is still pliable, pinch and wrap the glue around the toothpick and flower with your fingertips to ensure they are secured together. (Be careful – you can easily burn your fingertips if your glue hasn’t cooled long enough).

CUSTOMIZING YOUR FLOWERS

It’s time to paint…

Select your color palette and get creative. By changing up a few simple details you’ll wind up with a variety of different looks:

• painted or unpainted centers
• Muli-colored or solid-colored flowers
• painted edges only

Tip: Again, imperfect results is what you are going for here. Just have fun with this and see what you come up with. Acrylic paint is very forgiving. If you don’t like how something turns out – let it dry and paint over the top of it. *wink*

SMART TIP: Preserve your creations for reuse or as a keepsake to remember the special day! Simply add a coat or two of modpodge to the bottom and tops of your flower creations to protect them from soiling. Wipe them down following the celebration and you’ll be good to go!

DECORATING THE CAKE:

Please note: If you don’t plan on saving your paper creations and decide to skip the modpodge technique mentioned above, the icing from the cake will soil the paper. Therefore, I suggest adding the cake decor just prior to the event, (maybe 20 or 30  minutes beforehand), to prevent them from soiling for as long as possible. Depending on the thickness of the paper and the weather conditions,  you should be good for a couple of hours.

Since this is really going to be a matter of preference, there are a number of techniques you can use to dress up your plain cake. You can have the flowers cascade from the center of the cake down to one side like this.

Create small or large groupings of flowers on one side of the cake.

Or simply place some flowers along the very edge of the cake…

SIMPLE ALTERNATIVE

Don’t really want to have to get out the paints?

Find some coordinating decorative paper and use the same technique to create coordinating flowers with instant-color. (scrapbooking paper works well).

SUPER SIMPLE ALTERNATIVE

I used a 1″ round circle punch on the scrapbooking paper pictured in some of these how-to photographs to create some simple round decorations. (I used stick pins to secure them into the cake but if you aren’t comfortable with that you can still use toothpicks.)

I hope you are inspired to get creative. It’s amazing the difference a little bit of paper can make, isn’t it?

Enjoy!!