Panoramic Easter Eggs - Part 1 of 3 - Making frosting flowers and leaves

Last night I decided that this Easter we would make panoramic Easter eggs. We used to make them when I was little, but I've never made them by myself before. So we'll see how that goes, but as I started to get everything ready, I realized that I can't just make a blog post about panoramic Easter eggs, because they are actually the last step in a fairly lengthy process. So this post is about the first step: Making royal frosting flowers and leaves.

First step- The recipe:

1/4 C meringue powder
1/2 C water
Mix together (you will need an electric mixer) until fully blended. Mixture will be frothy. Then add:
4 1/2 C powdered sugar
Beat to desired consistency.


I decided I wanted to make six different colors, but I'm cheap and lazy. I don't usually use reusable frosting bags because they are a pain to wash, but I don't like buying disposable ones either because they are kind of expensive. I've heard that you can use plastic bags instead, but I've tried twice and both times the seams busted and I ended up with more cleaning to do. So, I tried a trick I found on Pinterest a long time ago (Sorry, I have no idea who the original poster was). You put the frosting in the center of a piece of plastic wrap, roll it up, and twist the ends. Put the inside piece of the coupler in the bag. Then drop the frosting log in. Pull the bottom twist through the hole in the bag until you can pull it anymore (using reasonable pressure). Then cut off the excess, and put on the tip and outside piece of the coupler as usual. Make sure the top twist of the plastic wrap is pointed up, otherwise you'll end up breaking through the plastic wrap while you are squeezing the frosting bag. Now since I'm lazy, I mixed my colors on the plastic wrap instead of having to wash extra bowls. If you decide to do that too, make sure you mix it with something that won't tear the plastic wrap. I used a children's knife (thick plastic, no serration), but I imagine a Popsicle stick would work as well. No matter what you use, make sure to check the plastic after you twist it up to make sure there aren't any holes. If there are, just add a second piece of plastic wrap on the outside.

Now that you have your frosting ready, it's time to make your flowers and leaves. I started with the leaves because historically I'm terrible at them. Today, however, they went very well and while the flowers...didn't. Start out by taping wax paper to the table (or to the back of cookie sheets if you will need to use your table for dinner).

I made an assortment of flat and ruffly leaves because sometimes I love the flat ones, but sometimes I like a little more flair. If you've never made frosting leaves before, you are in for an aggravating time. They take a little while to figure out, and oddly, the ruffly ones are easier. I like to do two or three ruffles. You are going to make your leaves from left to right (assuming you are right-handed), holding the frosting bag at a 45 degree angle. I used a Wilton #67 tip for my leaves. Start with the frosting tip touching the wax paper. Then lift the tip about 1/16 -1/8" off the paper for the rest of the leaf. To make a ruffle, squeeze the tube without moving the bag to the right. It helps if you move the bag slightly up and down, but it isn't necessary. When you finish with the last ruffle, stop squeezing the tube and pull it the right until the frosting breaks. DO NOT touch the wax paper with the frosting tip in order to end your leaf. If you want to make flat leaves, start your leaf and lift the bag while moving it about 3/8" to the left squeezing with gentle pressure. Then move the bag back to the right continuing to squeeze with gentle pressure until you cover the bottom layer of frosting. Then stop squeezing and pull to the right until the frosting breaks. 

Flowers tend to be easier. I just made drop flowers because I've never been able to do twist flowers and more difficult flowers like roses and lilacs are just too large for panoramic Easter eggs. I used three different tips for my flowers so that I would have a bit of variety. 

 Wilton tip #107

Wilton tip #16 

Wilton tip #30






For the flowers, you are just going to put the tip slightly above the wax paper, squeeze the frosting bag until your flower is the desired size. Then push the tip slightly into the flower and pull up without squeezing the bag. Make sure you put the center on the flower (Wilton tip #2) on right away. If the outside of the flower starts to harden, the center will be much harder to put on AND you may damage the rest of the flower in the process.

The last thing I made was a bunch of carrots. I was originally planning on putting greens on the carrots, but when I made the leaves I forgot I was making carrots and used up all the green frosting. So I'll have to do the carrot tops later. For the carrots, I used a Wilton #7 tip and just made a blob of orange frosting. Move the tip left and right to create texture so they look more like carrots. Then just like leaves, stop squeezing the bag and pull to the right to form the tip of the carrot.

This is all of the leaves, flowers, and carrots I was able to make from one batch of frosting:

Now, they have to dry for 24 hours before they can be peeled off of the wax paper. Once they are dry, you can put them in ziploc bags and store them at room temperature for practically forever. They can then be used to decorate cakes, cupcakes, cookies, or the panoramic Easter eggs that I will be showing you how to make tomorrow.