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Floral Sheet Cake Tutorial

June 13, 2019 · In: Featured, Seasonal, Spring, Tutorials

My momma was the queen of birthday sheet cakes. She baked them in her favorite casserole dish and served them up for every one of my birthdays as a kid, always covered in canned frosting and that grocery store tube gel for writing out Happy Birthday. It’s so nostalgic for me to see those little gel tubes hanging at the grocery store nowadays! I think casserole dish sheet cakes might have been a 90’s thing, but I want to bring them back in a big way. After a trip to my local JOANN store, I found the perfect piping tip set to make it happen!

sheet cake with flowers

See? All that cake needed was a little revamp! Same sheet cake underneath, but a whole lot of pretty piping to make it eye-catching. All of these pretty buttercream florals were made possible with the Wilton Drop Flowers Tip Set + a few additional favorite tips (1M and 4B) I picked up at JOANN’s.

The best thing about baking a sheet cake is it’s easy. You don’t have to worry about leveling, filling, or stacking any layers. Just add some cake batter to your casserole dish and bake it up! The only real thing you need to worry about is giving the cake enough time to cool before you frost it.

buttercream piping
sheet cake with buttercream piping tutorial

The reason I love these Drop Flower piping tips is that they take care of all the hard work for you. They’re designed to create perfect florals in just a twist of the wrist, creating a beautiful floral look that anyone can achieve. Here’s a quick video to show you the technique before you read all about it below:

This design will work in just about any color palette imaginable, so pick your favorite color scheme and get ready to party!

You Will Need

  • Your favorite casserole dish
  • 1 box of cake mix
  • 1.5 batches of vanilla buttercream
  • Food Color Gels of your choice
  • Bowls and spoons for color mixing
  • Piping bags
  • Wilton Drop Flowers Tip Set
  • Wilton Tip 1M
  • Wilton Tip 4B

Step 1: Bake The Cake

Whip up your favorite cake recipe or a box of cake mix, then pour it into your favorite (prepared) 9 x 13 casserole dish. I always like to spray the dish with Baker’s Joy to ensure that the cake doesn’t stick to the dish after baking.

how to bake a sheet cake

Once your sheet cake is baked to perfection, allow several hours for it to cool at room temperature before you start piping your florals.

Step 2: Color The Buttercream

With your favorite color scheme in mind, divide the vanilla buttercream into separate bowls for color mixing, then use your favorite color gels to tint it. I used the Wilton Color Right System to mix up five different colors for this project.

how to color buttercream with Wilton Color Right System

While any color gels will work for this part, the Wilton Color Right System is perfect for getting totally custom shades. It comes with a guide for color mixing, and you can use it to achieve any color imaginable!  

Step 3: Prepare Your Piping Bags

Snip off the end of each piping bag and insert the piping tips one by one. For this design, I prepared two piping bags with Wilton Tip 4B, two with Wilton Tip 1M, and four for each of the piping tips that come with the Wilton Drop Flowers Tip Set.

buttercream piping bags

The Wilton Drop Flowers tip set comes with Tips 225, 129, 109, and 190. Each one makes a different floral design, effortlessly!

Step 4: Pipe The Floral Designs

With your cooled sheet cake in the casserole dish, first pipe rosettes using the piping bags fitted with Tip 1M. To pipe a rosette, face the piping tip downward and squeeze the piping bag to get the buttercream flowing, then while keeping continuous pressure, make a small swirl around the where you originally squeezed. There’s no rhyme or reason as to where to pipe the rosettes, so just follow your heart here.

how to pipe buttercream rosettes

Next, use the piping bags fitted with Tip 4B to pipe star designs wherever you’d like. These stars are quite simple, just face the piping tip downward, squeeze, and release as you lift up.

how to pipe buttercream flowers

And finally, use the piping bags fitted with the Wilton Drop Flowers Tip Set to fill in all of the empty spaces. You can either pipe them with a squeeze or gently rotate your wrist as you’re piping to get cool swirled floral designs.

buttercream piping tips
how to decorate a sheet cake

Isn’t this floral sheet cake a hit? It’s a nostalgic concept, made modern with some easy piping! The best part is, it’ll work in all sorts of color schemes and the look can be achieved in minutes. It’s the easiest way to make an eye-catching floral cake!

sheet cake decorating tips

Be sure to visit your local JOANN store to find all the piping tips you need to create buttercream florals, plus tons of cake decorating tools and supplies, all in one shop. If you don’t live near a JOANN store, check out their website for an epic selection of cake decorating goodness! And whether you shop in store or online, be sure to download their app, because they always have a coupon for you to get the best cake and craft supplies at a discount.

Disclaimer: I was compensated by JOANN for my work of creating this project, styling, filming, photographing, and writing about their products. As always, all opinions are honest and my own. Thank you for supporting brands that support Sugar & Sparrow.

By: Whitney · In: Featured, Seasonal, Spring, Tutorials · Tagged: baking a sheet cake, buttercream flowers, buttercream piping, cake decorating, floral piping, floral sheet cake, JOANN, JOANN cake decorating supplies, sheet cake, sheet cake decorating, sheet cake ideas, spring, wilton, wilton cake decorating tips, wilton piping tips

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Comments

  1. Lizi says

    October 5, 2019 at 10:19 am

    Thank you for the fantastic idea! I just made this, using fall colors instead, and it turned out amazing — and was also incredibly simple for something so gorgeous.

    Reply
    • Whitney says

      October 6, 2019 at 8:17 pm

      That’s amazing, Lizi! So happy you loved the tutorial and I bet it looked incredible in a fall color palette!

      Reply
  2. Hanako Narushima says

    November 24, 2019 at 2:28 pm

    Hello 🙂 What cake recipe do you use for your sheet cake?

    Reply
    • Whitney says

      November 25, 2019 at 8:45 am

      Hi Hanako! For this cake I used my vanilla cake recipe in a 9 x 13 pan (filled about 1/2 full): https://sugarandsparrow.com/vanilla-cake-recipe/

      Reply
  3. Katie says

    January 29, 2020 at 3:33 pm

    Hi Whitney!
    I’m thinking of doing this for a friends birthday this weekend…the problem is, she wants a chocolate sheet cake with chocolate icing. Do you think a monochromatic look would work? Or should Ice with chocolate icing and then do the flowers with tinted white icing? I can’t decide…

    Reply
    • Whitney says

      February 1, 2020 at 3:19 pm

      Hi Katie! I think this would look lovely in monochrome! If you’re concerned about the lack of color you could always add in some more chocolate textures like chocolate covered espresso beans, etc. or use my white chocolate buttercream for some of the piping. I like mixing white chocolate buttercream with chocolate buttercream to get a mid-toned chocolate color (that tastes amazing!) as well. Here’s the white chocolate buttercream recipe, including a photo of a cake where I mixed the two buttercreams together: https://sugarandsparrow.com/white-chocolate-buttercream-recipe/

      Reply
  4. Melissa says

    February 10, 2020 at 11:42 am

    That is just gorgeous! How much would a peice of that cake be sold for in a bake sale? I would really like to make one!

    Reply
    • Whitney says

      February 11, 2020 at 3:18 pm

      Hi Melissa! I’m not sure how to price one piece of cake for a bake sale, but if you look at your local bakery pricing you can get a sense for how much a slice of cake goes for and figure out your pricing from there 🙂

      Reply
    • Abby says

      July 8, 2021 at 7:48 am

      How much would you charge to sell a cake like this?

      Reply
      • Whitney says

        July 11, 2021 at 9:29 pm

        Hi Abby! I don’t sell my cakes but if you want to figure out how to price your cakes there’s a lot of info out there on the topic. It really depends on where you live, what your local cake makers are charging, how much time goes into your design, etc.

        Reply
  5. Annie Eckert says

    August 16, 2022 at 9:22 am

    Hi! I love your video and directions! Thank you so much for sharing. I have a question – I always have so much buttercream left for projects like these. How do you avoid over-making buttercream?

    Reply
    • Whitney says

      August 16, 2022 at 8:48 pm

      Hi Annie! I usually have a little buttercream left over after projects as well. It’s hard to make just the right amount and always better to have more than enough than not enough. I usually wrap the extra buttercream in plastic wrap and refrigerate or freeze it until the next project.

      Reply

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Anyone Can Cake x Wilton GIVEAWAY 🥳 @wiltoncake Anyone Can Cake x Wilton GIVEAWAY 🥳 @wiltoncakes has been a HUGE part of my cake journey and I’m extra excited to gift ONE lucky winner every Wilton tool they could possibly need to make ⁣perfect layer cakes!⁣
⁣
ONE lucky winner will get everything in this Reel:⁣ ⁣
✨Gold piping tip set⁣
✨Cake turntable⁣
✨Navy and gold icing spatula set ⁣
✨Color Right Performance Food Coloring Set⁣
✨Icing comb set⁣
✨Icing smoother⁣
✨Cake leveler⁣
✨Set of two 8-inch cake pans⁣
✨a SIGNED copy of my book, Anyone Can Cake⁣
⁣
TO ENTER:⁣
⁣⁣1️⃣ LIKE this post⁣ ⁣
2️⃣ FOLLOW @sugarandsparrowco and @wiltoncakes⁣
3️⃣ TAG a couple friends who would love this prize below in separate comments. One comment = one entry ⁣⁣ ⁣
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That’s it! Ends March 25th at 11:59pm PST and is open to US residents only (sorry to my worldwide friends!). I’ll reach out to the winner via DM to claim the prize and if it’s you, please respond within 24 hours to claim. 🎉 Must be 18 or older. Not sponsored by Wilton or Instagram. Best of luck to all 🎉⁣
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(Ad) Buttercream Embroidery Cake Tutorial🧵🌸🎂 to celebrate March being National Craft Month, I decided to try out some new buttercream piping techniques and make the embroidery cake of my dreams! It ended up being so fun + easy with the perfect cake decorating supplies from @joann_stores 🙌🏼 Here’s how to make this happy little Spring-inspired cake:⁣
⁣
1️⃣ Frost your cake with a smooth buttercream finish and chill for at least 20 minutes.⁣
2️⃣ Use floral cookie cutters to imprint the buttercream.⁣
3️⃣ Outline the shapes using Wilton tip 2 or 3, then fill in the shapes with lines of buttercream piping. For some of the flowers, start at the edge of the shape and pipe a series of lines that connect in the center. For others, experiment with ways to fill in the shape with parallel lines, dots, or other embroidery-inspired piping. ⁣
4️⃣ Freehand some tiny dotted flowers and floral accents using those same piping techniques wherever your heart desires!⁣
⁣
The full tutorial + video for this pretty floral embroidery cake is linked in my bio! It’s the perfect way to welcome Spring 🌸⁣
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#handmadewithjoann #joannpartner #embroidery #embroiderycake #baking #floralcake #cakeideas #buttercreamcake #bake #cakesofinstagram #cake #buttercream #cakelover #cakeart #nationalcraftmonth
Yellow Cake + Chocolate Frosting (aka Classic Birt Yellow Cake + Chocolate Frosting (aka Classic Birthday Cake) 🙌🏼 🥳 this one is extra nostalgic for me because it’s what my mama made for all my birthdays growing up 💛 this recipe rivals the box mix: super moist and fluffy layers of classic yellow cake (naturally colored with egg yolks) + silky smooth chocolate buttercream. Top with rainbow sprinkles for extra fun! 🎉⁣
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Find this recipe linked in my bio + on page 147 of my book, Anyone Can Cake ✨⁣
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#birthdaycake #yellowcake #chocolatefrosting #chocolatebuttercream #sprinkles #layercake #cakelover #cakesofinstagram #cake #bake #bakingfun #bakedfromscratch #anyonecancake #cakeideas #cakedecorating
Ombré Rainbow Sheet Cake 🌈🥳 for St. Patrick Ombré Rainbow Sheet Cake 🌈🥳 for St. Patrick’s Day or any day, because rainbow cakes are year round if you ask me 🫶🏽⁣
⁣
🎨 colors: custom mixed with @wiltoncakes color right food coloring system ⁣
🌈 piping tips: @wiltoncakes 1M for the rosettes, 104 for the ruffles, 32 for the swirls and stars⁣
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I wish you could see that the inside of this cake I wish you could see that the inside of this cake had crushed Cadbury Mini Eggs sprinkled between each layer 😍 best Easter candy of all (name a better one, I dare you!) 🙌🏽 ⁣
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