A Walk On The Wild Side

I am often asked where I get my cupcake flower and colour inspiration from.

If you had asked me in my teens, I would never have admitted that I was a country girl at heart. As a child my parents dragged me down country lanes, up hills and down dales, holidays were spent under canvas and moonlit sky ; no TV,  just making friends with other young campers and amusing ourselves building dens out of twigs and cut grass etc. My sister and I could often be found with paper, glue and various flowers, leaves, twigs and shells making masterpieces (well at least to us they were) for our parents. I never fully appreciated it at the time but am so grateful now for the experiences and want to pass this love of nature on to my children. Looking back now I can see this was the cornerstone for my love of flowers and subsequently the inspiration for my business.

I spent a few years living in a very busy city but after having my children I have returned to my country roots. I love nothing more than going for a family ramble into the woods and fields to explore and absorb the peace and tranquillity that we see in nature. My son has definitely got the nature bug and loves turning over logs and seeing what crawls out from under them. I’m not so keen on the slimy creatures. (I blame my Mum for teaching him this.) My daughter is more interested in the flowers and butterflies. As a child my Mum bought my sister and I some little nature spotting books called “Ispy”. She has now given the updated versions to my children. They love the excitement of finding an item from the book and marking it off and seeing how many points they score with more points for rare finds. It is a lovely way to teach children about nature.

In nature we see some amazing colours all year round from the bright spring and summer flowers to the amber and bronze tones of Autumn. If you just stop and take a minute to look around you at the flowers in the fields and hedgerows throughout the seasons you will be amazed at the diversity of colours and shapes you will see.

I find looking at the natural colour combinations in nature gives me my inspiration for my bakes. I am regularly asked for a themed colour palette based on the season. Who wouldn’t recognise a yellow spring palette or the bronzes, oranges and deep reds autumn? What would Christmas be without the deep reds of poinsettia, holly green with hints of exotic golds or the ice blue and silver winter palette. These colour palettes are recognisable as seasonal colours and it would rather go against the grain to produce autumn colours in Spring but I admit I do sometimes get asked for them.

Nature also has a habit of throwing some unusual colours together in one flower and amazingly they work but I do add a little caution here as it doesn’t always translate into buttercream. I have tried on numerous occasions to recreate the wax flower with the pink petals and centre rust colour but I’ve not cracked it to my satisfaction yet as it always just looks weird. Maybe this is nature’s way of being unique and telling you to leave this one but I haven’t given up yet!!!

If I can leave you with only one thought it would be to keep your work natural and pay attention to the detail. I have had numerous customers come back time and time again because they appreciate the true likeness to the actual flowers. I truly believe this is the key to making your buttercream flowers business a success and keeps your customers coming back for more.

Keep piping

Kerry xo