Chocolate Peony Cake

A beautifully intricate chocolate peony, easily made with one ingredient, and a special trick! 

I love peonies. I love when I walk into Costco in May/June and there are bouquets of them for cheap. The light pink ones, the angelic white ones, the dark pink ones, and especially the coral ones always steal my attention right away with their large soft blooms. I tried to grow them in my backyard last year. Ryan gifted me 5 beautiful peony bushes/plants for Mother's Day, and I babied them inside until I thought it was safe enough to plan them outside (you never know with Utah weather!). When I finally planted them outside, they died within a couple weeks! It was annoying, but I'm also not the best gardener, sooooo it was destined to happen. 

This year I went with a fleet of roses for my front yard, and one lone peony plant. If the peony doesn't die, and I can manage to keep it alive for at least a few months, maybe I'll consider planting more next year, haha. 

As for this chocolate peony, it will thankfully survive until first bite, and is SUPER easy to make. Really. I thought this whole candy-melt-flower-making idea was going to be tricky, but it turns out, it's much easier than I thought it would be! I have a couple different chocolate flowers to share this week, and this one was by far my favorite, because, peonies. 

I started off using regular plastic spoons after seeing the idea from Erin Gardner. I melted the candy melt chocolate, then filled each spoon with chocolate. Instead of just using regular plastic spoons, I picked up some soup spoons, too, to try to achieve that coral peony petal look. Letting them cool on the counter was taking too long, so I popped them into the freezer for about 10 minutes. 

The first time around, I didn't put enough chocolate on the spoons (just a light coat, really), and there was a lot of breakage. It was frustrating, but I was determined! The next time, I made sure to fill the spoons up all the way, tap them on the side of the melting pot to let out any bubbles, and then let them freeze again. 

This was definitely the ticket! They worked perfectly! 

They slide right off the spoon (pop them out from the side, instead of the bottom), and went to work on a cake to place them on. 

I've seen this almost oil-painted technique everywhere, and knew it would pair lovely with the peony on top. Using three different kinds of buttercream, I smeared the buttercream from the bottom up using an offset icing spatula. 

Next, I added a little swoop of buttercream on top for the peony pedals to stick on. 

\

To begin the peony, I started off with the skinnier spoon pedals - the light pink ones. This created a really soft color color depth to work with. I stuck them in the buttercream with the pattern above. 

Next, I surrounded the light pink ones with the darker pink colored ones in this pattern above.

Finally, I added on the soup spoon pedals. 

See? SO. FREAKING. EASY. 

And how gorgeous is that? I can't wait to try this technique again with some different colors. It's just so so lovely, and quite tasty, I'm sure. 

Chocolate Peony Cake

Ingredients/Supplies: 

Candy Melting Chocolate

Parchment Paper

Cookie Sheet

Plastic Spoons

Plastic Soup Spoons

Frosted Cake

Buttercream

Method: 

1. Melt the candy melts in a melting pot or in the microwave for 1 minute in a glass dish. Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper. Fill each spoon with melted chocolate, then place on the prepped parchment paper lined cookie sheet. Place in the freezer for at least 10 minutes, then slide chocolate pedals out of the spoons. 

2. Add a touch of buttercream to the frosted cake to act as glue for the pedals. Starting with the skinny spoon pedals, create the inside of the flower by placing the larger end of the pedal down. Repeat and then add the larger soup spoon pedals around it.