Here are some of my favorite ideas for poinsettia Christmas cakes and a how-to for piping buttercream poinsettia's.

-For a special Christmas cake border, pipe small buttercream poinsettias.

-Use poinsettias in a Christmas scene on your cake - maybe on a snowwoman's hat or in a bouquet of them.

-Replace the bow with a poinsettia on a cake decorated to look like a wrapped Christmas gift.

-Make a poinsettia wreath! Pipe overlapping borders of dark green leaves onto the top of your Christmas cake. Pipe buttercream poinsettias on top of the wreath, spacing well. Then using the same red icing, but a round tip, pipe a sprinkling of holly berries in the spaces between the flowers. Write your Christmas message in the center of the cake.

-For a stacked Christmas cake or Christmas wedding cake, cascade poinsettias down the front.

-Make a poinsettia cupcake bouquet! Ice enough cupcakes to fill a tier cake stand. Cover the top of each cupcake with a buttercream poinsettia, and then arrange on the tier plates. The top tier could be reserved for a vase of real poinsettias (pesticide-free).

How to Pipe a Poinsettia

First, gather together:

-3 icing bags or parchment cones.
-Leaf tips, numbers 352 and 366.
-Batches of red, green and a much smaller amount of yellow buttercream icing.
-White frosted cake(s) or cupcakes. Snow-white buttercream provides a nice background.

How to Make a Buttercream Poinsettia

Note: You will be piping these directly on the cake, so even though they're easy to learn to make, practice a bit first.

1. Fit an icing bag with the #366 leaf tip, and fill with red icing. To create each petal, use the same motion as you do for a leaf, squeezing and pulling out each petal. Create five petals with the wider ends of the petals facing the center (it's ok if they don't meet because you'll be adding more).

2. Pipe another layer of petals (technically known as bracts or modified leaves), staggering them on top of the first layer. You might want to pipe a few more in between the petals on the bottom layer.

3. For a more natural (and Christmas) look, add green petals behind the bottom layer, using tip #352.

4. Pipe the yellow dots (the real flowers) in the center, using a round tip #3.

For more on creating delicious and stunnig frosting flowers visit the CakeAnswers.com website

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