A little sweetness for a little one on the way

A baby shower, and a whole lot of flowers. No two cupcakes the same.

Every one a different bloom

They are all piped in buttercream, straight onto the cupcake, and each one is a different flower: open roses with the petals wrapped round a centre, daisies with a long narrow petal repeated all the way round, chrysanthemums built up in rings from the outside in, ruffled dahlias, flat five-petal blossoms with a cluster of dots in the middle.

Most of them get a few green leaves tucked round the edge, and some get a tiny second flower set on top in a contrasting colour — a pink blossom on a green rose, a lavender one on a white daisy.

The palette is what holds it together

Soft sage green, ivory, lavender and a pale pink. Nothing bright, nothing that jumps out of the box.

That restraint is the reason a tray of thirty different flowers looks like an arrangement instead of a jumble. Change the shape as much as you like, but keep the colours to a handful and it still reads as one thing.

Piped flowers hold their shape better than fondant ones and they taste like the frosting rather than like sugar paste, which for a shower — where people eat standing up with a plate in one hand — is the right trade.

What's inside

Cupcakes were vanilla, chocolate, and lemon all with vanilla buttercream frosting.

For the little one on the way

Congratulations — and I hope the shower was lovely.