We had so much fun creating this floral sheet cake — especially since Mother’s Day is coming up this weekend! Don’t be overwhelmed by the decorative roses! Trust me when I say it’s easier then it looks. This beautiful sheet cake is an extra-special dessert anyone can make for mom.

Taking time to create the buttercream roses was almost therapeutic. They do take some time to make but they can be made ahead of time and you can keep them in the freezer. Or, you can just make a few for a decorative corner instead of covering the entire cake like we did.  Practice makes perfect when piping buttercream florals, but it’s well worth it and almost addicting! Plus your mom will love the effort you put in! 

Mother’s Day Floral  Sheet Cake
Preparation time: 1-2 hours (including piping the flowers)
Baking time: 25-28 minutes
Portion:s 8-10

Ingredients
For the cake
1 ⅓ cup of all-purpose or cake flour
1 tsp baking powder
½ tsp salt
¾ cup + 1 tbsp unsalted butter at room temperature
1 cup sugar
¾ tsp vanilla extract
½ cup milk
4 egg whites
2 tbsp sugar

For the buttercream
1 ½ cups unsalted butter at room temperature
6 cups of icing sugar, sifted
1 tbsp vanilla
Zest of a lemon (optional)
1-2 tbsp of cream to loosen

Directions
For the cake
Pre-heat the oven to 350°F.

Grease and flour a 7×12″ brownie or jelly pan and line the bottom with parchment paper.

Sift the dry ingredients together and set aside.

In a mixer fitted with the whisk attachment, whip the egg whites. Gradually add 2 tbsp of sugar until stiff peaks form. Remove it from the mixer bowl and place in another bowl. Set aside.

Place the butter and 1 cup of sugar in the mixer bowl. (No need to clean it out from the egg white.) Using the paddle attachment, beat until light and fluffy.

Add the dry ingredients, alternating with adding the milk. Make sure you always finishing with the dry ingredients. Using a spatula, fold in the reserved whipped egg white.

Spread the batter evenly in the cake pan and bake in the oven for around 25-30 minutes until golden brown and the toothpick inserted come out clean.

For the buttercream
Place the butter and half of the icing sugar in the mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. Cream well and add the remaining icing sugar, vanilla, cream and lemon zest. Cream until light and fluffy.

For the buttercream flowers
What you need:
Piping tips (We like using #101,102-104, 125-126.)
Flower nail
Piping bags
Gel colors
Parchment paper squares

There are so many variations on buttercream flowers on the internet. It was fun to play around and try our hand at making different shapes. The best way to get a good grasp is to find tutorials on the internet and Youtube. It really helps to see how they do things. Wilton has some great videos on how to pipe different buttercreams!  We kept our flowers in the freezer until we were ready to top the cake.

When it came to icing the cake, we used the remaining uncolored buttercream to the cake as the first layer and then added the flowers on the top.