This post may contain affiliate links. Please read our disclosure policy.
This Floral Birthday Cake turns a simple vanilla sheet cake into something pretty enough for a party, with no edible flowers and no special decorating skills required. My trick is baking it low and slow at 320 degrees F, which keeps the top flat and easy to decorate. You pipe the buttercream flowers right onto the cake with a handful of piping tips, so it all comes together in one go. I don’t limit this cake just to birthdays, either. It’s so pretty that I love to make this cake for bridal showers, baby showers, or even a special dinner party.
In the South, we love our fancy cakes. Weddings, bridal showers, baby showers, and pretty much any family gathering are occasions for somebody’s favorite cake.
As a fourth-generation Southern cook, I’ve eaten and made a LOT of cakes. My favorite will always be my Granny’s chocolate sheet cake, but I’m also partial to a classic pound cake.
This gorgeous floral birthday cake, though, is my absolute favorite for special occasions. It’s just a simple vanilla sheet cake covered in splashes of color piped on as flowers. Think swirls, rosettes, and pops of color — the possibilities are as endless as a spring garden!
I know it looks difficult, but I promise you can do it! If you’re not sure how to make flower designs, watch a couple of YouTube tutorials, and you’ll see that it’s really not that hard. The piping tips do the work for you!
I love this cake because it lets just about anyone turn out something that looks like it came from a bakery, without piping the flowers separately or chilling them ahead of time. The vanilla sheet cake is a plain, sturdy base, since it needs to hold up to a lot of buttercream on top. I use an oil-based batter with both buttermilk and whole milk, which keeps the crumb moist and tender for days.
For the buttercream, I use a simple American buttercream and color it with gel instead of liquid food coloring. Gel is concentrated, so a small amount tints each batch without thinning the buttercream or watering down the vanilla.
Testing results for the floral birthday cake
- Bake temperature. Baking at 320 degrees F instead of the usual 350 gave the flattest, most even top. The lower heat let the cake rise slowly without doming or cracking, which made it much easier to decorate.
- Y’all know I love butter in a cake, and typically I use a mix of butter and oil like in my amazing Hershey’s Chocolate Cake. I like butter for the flavor and oil to keep it moist and tender. However, I found that in this cake, using just oil yields the softest crumb and the cake stays moist for several days.
I hope you make this recipe. I think you’ll love it!
Ingredient notes
You’ll find the full ingredient amounts and instructions below on the printable recipe card. We’ve also included common questions and tips for success below the recipe card.
Vegetable oil: I use oil instead of butter in this cake because it keeps the crumb moist and tender for days, which is important when the cake sits under a thick layer of buttercream.
Buttermilk: The buttermilk adds a little tang and helps keep the cake soft. Whole milk goes in alongside it for extra moisture.
All-purpose flour: You don’t need cake flour here. Regular all-purpose flour gives the cake enough structure to hold up to decorating.
Gel food coloring: Use gel rather than liquid food coloring. It’s concentrated, so a small amount colors the buttercream without thinning it out.
How to pipe buttercream flowers
When the cake is completely cool, you’re ready to decorate. Divide the buttercream between four or five bowls and tint each one with gel coloring. Fit each piping bag with a tip, fill it with one color, and pipe the flowers right onto the top of the cake.
I start with the larger rosettes and swirls, then work in smaller shapes and fill any gaps with the smallest tip. Alternating colors as you go keeps everything balanced. I strongly suggest you practice for a bit on parchment paper. You can even use some store-bought icing for practice!
Here are the piping tips I use:
| Piping tip | What it makes |
|---|---|
| 1M | large rosettes |
| 6B | swirls |
| 104 | squiggly lines |
| 1A and 363 | filling gaps and accents |
Why this cake bakes low and slow
You’ll notice the recipe calls for 320 degrees F, not the usual 350. That’s on purpose. The lower temperature lets the cake rise slowly and evenly, so the top bakes up flat instead of domed or cracked. A flat top gives you a smooth surface to decorate.
How to store the floral cake
Keep the cake covered at room temperature for the first day or two, then move it to the refrigerator, where it will keep for up to five days. The longer it sits in the fridge, the more the texture dries out, so it’s best to use it in the first few days.
To freeze, cover the cake well and freeze it for up to a month. Because the piped flowers make it hard to wrap tightly, don’t plan to keep it frozen much longer than that.
If you make this recipe, please leave a comment and ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ below!
Join Southern Food and Fun Community group
and Southern Potluck group!
And please follow us on social media:
Floral Birthday Cake Recipe
Ingredients
Ingredients
For the cake
- 4 eggs
- ½ cup vegetable oil
- ¾ cup full-fat buttermilk
- ½ cup whole milk
- 4 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 2 cups granulated white sugar
- 2 teaspoons fine salt
- 3 ¾ cups all-purpose flour
- 3 teaspoons baking powder
For the frosting
- 1 cup unsalted butter, softened
- 4 cups powdered sugar
- ¼ cup heavy cream
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- gel food coloring (we used pink, purple, yellow, green and peach)
Instructions
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 320 degrees F. Line a 13” x 9” baking pan with parchment.
- In a large mixing bowl, add 4 eggs, 1/2 cup vegetable oil, 3/4 cup full-fat buttermilk, 1/2 cup whole milk, and 4 teaspoons vanilla extract. Whisk until combined.
- Add 2 cups granulated white sugar and 2 teaspoons fine salt, and whisk until fully combined.
- Sift in 3 3/4 cups all-purpose flour and 3 teaspoons baking powder and whisk gently until there are no lumps, taking care not to overmix.
- Transfer the cake batter to the prepared pan then place in the middle of the preheated oven. Bake for 40 minutes or until the cake is risen, golden brown and a toothpick inserted into the middle comes out clean. Allow the cake to cool in the pan while you make the frosting.
Frosting:
- In the bowl of a stand mixer with the paddle attachment fitted add 1 cup unsalted butter, softened and beat for a couple of minutes until smooth and creamy
- Add 4 cups powdered sugar and beat until it changes from a sand-like consistency to thick and smooth.
- Add 1/4 cup heavy cream and 1 tsp vanilla extract and beat on a medium speed for at least 5 minutes. The buttercream will be smooth, thick and fluffy.
- Divide the buttercream between 5 bowls (or however many colors you’ll be using). Add a drop of food coloring to each and mix thoroughly adding more color until you’re happy with the shade.
- Fit the piping nozzles to the bags then fill each one with the colored frosting.
- When the cake is cool, remove it from the baking pan and set it in front of you. Pipe swirls, rosettes, rounds, squiggles and stars all over the top of the cake. We started with the larger rosettes and went from there. Alternate between each color of frosting to add visual interest and use the smallest piping nozzle to fill in any gaps.
Video
Nutrition
Decorating the floral cake
This cake looks complicated (ok, it IS complicated!), but trust me, you can do this! It does take a bit of practice to get those swirls just right, but after you do a few of them it’s pretty easy.
Make the larger rosettes first and place them randomly around the cake.
Then change up which frosting color you’re using and use the smallest piping tip to fill in any gaps.
Questions about the floral cake recipe
A thick American buttercream works best, like the one in this recipe. It needs enough body to hold the shape of the piped flowers, so beat it until it’s smooth and fluffy but still stiff enough to stand up.
You sure can! The piped flowers are the star here, so a boxed vanilla or white cake baked in a -inch 9×13-inch pan will work if you’re short on time. The from-scratch version stays moist a little longer, which helps if you’re making it ahead.
The recipe is written for a 9×13-inch sheet cake, and the amounts and the low-oven timing are set for that pan. Round pans would need a different bake time, and I have not tested this recipe using round pans.
I used pink, purple, yellow, green, and peach for a soft, spring look, but any colors you have on hand will work. This design comes together with as few as one or two colors or as many as five. You could make this a Christmas cake, or red, white, and blue for July 4th.
While this floral cake doesn’t showcase edible flowers, some of our other recipes do, like our Lemon Icebox pie. Our favorites are edible violas and pansies. If you want to use real flowers, make sure they are organic and EDIBLE.
