Succulents are awesome. They are hard to kill (a plus for those of us with NO skill with actual plants!), they come in a variety of amazing colours, shapes, and textures, and they suit pretty much any event you could want flowers for! Bonus!

The good news is too, when it comes to BUTTERCREAM Succulents, they could just be the EASIEST things to pipe!

Colour is EVERYTHING

The trick to nailing succulents is getting the colours right. By that I don't mean they have to be botanically accurate (heaven forbid!), but getting a great blend of colours takes a blob of buttercream, and makes it a plant.

For this project, I used Americolor Electric Green, Avocado, Eggplant, and Cypress. You can use any colours you like, but these 4 colours give you a great earthy yet crisp palette to work with.

Consistency

Consistency is key in piping absolutely anything, and when it comes to succulents, you need it firm. Succulents tend to be heavier, bulkier flowers, and they need a strong Buttercream to hold them up.

Basic Buttercream is perfect for this project, as is Swiss Meringue, and other firm Buttercreams. For this demonstration, I used Caker's Warehouse premade Buttercream, which is pretty much texture perfect with Basic Buttercream.

Cactii

You can't have succulents with a Cactus! Well, you probably can, but they look so cool! These little guys are created using an open star tip, something with lots 'o teeth, to give it that 'channelled' look. For these little guys, I used the 4B tip, also known as the 'French Groove' tip.

The technique is simple, just squeeze, then stop piping before you pull away.

Also, don't be afraid to undermix your colours, a nice bit of natural buttercream gives some natural looking highlights.

Succulent Roses

You knew there would HAVE to be Roses in here somewhere! Succulent Roses are even more simple then regular piped Roses, they can even be piped with a tipless bag!

Starting with 3 intersecting lines in the centre, build it out until you are happy with the shape. Its legit that easy.

Aloe Vera

Probably the easiest to identify succulent, Aloe Vera has a great texture, and a vibrant colour thats perfect for any Succulent Garden.

Another tipless wonder, Aloe Vera is piped an a single sharp blob, ideally with a seamed bag (like the Loyal Bakeware ones I use), which gives a nice natural texture, without the fuss!

Echeveria

Hard to pronounce, easy to pipe. When it comes to bang for your buck, Echeveria look amazing, and can be customised in colour, and petal design. Piped using a leaf tip (for this demonstration, I used the large 366 tip).

Once again, short, sharp squeezes give you nice juicy petals, but play around with the layout, see how different sized petals look.