Succulent Cake Ideas - With Gum Paste & Buttercream Succulents

If you love succulents, and want to make a creative cake for your next event, try making one of the succulent cake ideas below. They will impress all of your friends who love plants!

There are a variety of different ways you can make edible succulent cakes. Some of the succulent cake designs are made from buttercream frosting, while others use succulents that are made from fondant and gum paste.

If you don’t need the succulents on your cake to be edible you can always opt for purchasing real succulents, or plastic succulent cake toppers to add to the cake.

Get inspiration from the succulent cake ideas below, and follow the links to purchase the succulents and cacti which inspire these cakes!

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Succulent cakes

All of the succulent cake ideas below are visually stunning. The techniques used in these succulent cake designs range from beginner to expert.

The easier designs use artificial succulent cake toppers, while the more challenging succulent cake designs require piping buttercream succulents or molding them from fondant and gum paste.

Buttercream succulents

If you’re going to make your succulent cake designs with buttercream frosting, you’ll need a set of piping tips, piping bags, a flower nail and lifter, and parchment paper squares.

To make the buttercream succulents, attach a square of parchment paper to your flower nail with a dot of buttercream frosting and pipe each succulent onto it.

Then transfer them to the fridge or freezer to solidify them. This will help them retain their shape while you’re handling them and adhering them to the cake.

Attach them to the cake with a dot of buttercream frosting. While you’re doing this, you can fill in any empty spaces by piping simple succulent or cacti designs directly onto the cake.

The cake design above has succulents and cacti that are made entirely of buttercream. To make a design like this, sprinkle graham cracker crumbs around the edge, and then arrange the succulents starting in the center and moving outwards, filling the cake entirely.

Make sure to include succulents and cacti of varying heights and colors in your design to give it visual interest.

The succulents and cacti on this cake are modeled after:

Echeveria “Lolita” – pale pink rosette succulents
Echinopsis chamaecereus “Peanut Cactus” – tall cacti with white dots
Sepervivum “Aymon Correvon” – green rosette succulents
Mammillaria bocasana “Powder Puff Cactus” – cacti with pink flowers
Adromischus filicaulis ssp. marlothii – bulbous green succulent
Sempervivum heuffelii “Saffarina” – red and green variegated rosette succulent

The cake idea above has both buttercream succulents and cacti, plus edible chocolate rocks and graham cracker sand.

In contrast to the previous succulent cake design, this is not as densely packed with succulents, so it leaves more space for the sand and rocks. Doing this uses less frosting, and also creates visual interest with the negative space.

The succulents and cacti on this cake are modeled after:

Mammillaria karwinskiana “Royal Cross” – cactus with white flowers
Sempervivum heuffelii “Blaze”– green and purple rosette succulent
Echinobivia “Rainbow Bursts” – cactus with white dots
Adromischus filicaulis ssp. marlothii – bulbous green succulent
Echinocereus rigidissimus ssp. rubispinus “Rainbow Hedgehog Cactus” – cactus with pink dots

There are two layers in this succulent cake. The succulents are arranged so they look like they are climbing between the two layers. There are also large chocolate rocks placed on each of the layers.

This succulent cake is perfect for spring, because it uses a variety of pastel colors. You could also swap out the chocolate rocks for pastel, chocolate Easter eggs for an even more seasonal design.

The succulents on this cake are modeled after:

Sedum adolphi “Gold Dust” – yellow rosette succulent
Pachyphytum compactum “Little Jewel” – green rosette succulent
Echeveria agavoides “Romeo” – pink rosette succulent
Pachyveria “Draco” – pink and green variegated rosette succulent

Gum paste & fondant succulents

In addition to using buttercream to make succulents, you can also make them using gum paste and fondant.

Gum paste succulents are a great option for decorating cakes, because they dry hard which causes them to retain their shape better than buttercream succulents.

This makes them perfect for intricate designs. While they are technically edible, since they dry so hard, they are more suitable for decoration than consumption.

Gum paste flowers are also a great option if you don’t want to make them yourself, because you can buy sets of them from Etsy and Amazon.

This cake is the best of both worlds! It uses both buttercream succulents and gum paste/fondant succulents.

It also has piping going around the cake that resembles a basket. This design is so stunning, it almost makes you forget it’s a cake at all.

The succulents on this cake are modeled after:

Echeveria “Mindo Ilin” – light green rosette succulent with pink tips
Echeveria derenbergii “Painted Lady” – white rosette succulent
Echeveria “Emerald Ripple” – bright green rosette succulent
Echeveria “Brown Rose” – brown rosette succulent
Graptoveria “Titubans Variegata” – variegated pink and green rosette succulent
Echinopsis huascha “Red Torch Cactus” – cactus with orange flowers
Sempervivum heuffelii “Saffarina” – brown and green variegated rosette succulent
Echeveria “Curly Locks” – curly green rosette succulent
Echeveria “Crinoline Ruffles” – curly green rosette succulent with pink edges
Gasteraloe “Flow” – green succulent with white dots
Adromischus filicaulis ssp. marlothii – bulbous green succulent

Instead of filling the top of your cake with lots of little succulents, you could make one big succulent to use as a cake topper.

This one is modeled after an echeveria “Hercules” succulent. If you don’t want to make your own, you can buy a premade succulent cake topper here.

You don’t have to put the succulent on top of your cake for it to stand out! This succulent cake design has a large gum paste fondant succulent in the center.

It also features a blue and white color motif, that uses ribbon, stenciling, and embossed flowers.

The succulent this design is modeled after is an echeveria “Sagitta“. You can purchase a similar cake topper here.

Living and artificial succulent cake toppers

You can opt for adding artificial succulent cake toppers or live succulents to your cake designs if you don’t need them to be edible.

Artificial succulents are a great choice because you won’t need to care for them. You can find them made from a variety of materials including plastic, clay and paper.

If you do choose to use living succulents as cake toppers, be sure that you’re choosing succulents that are not poisonous or toxic in any way. Though you won’t be eating the succulents, you don’t want a poisonous plant to be touching a cake that you will be eating.

The artificial succulents on this tiered cake turn a plain white cake into a visual masterpiece. These plastic succulents are modeled after are sepervivum “North Leigh” and graptopetalum paraguayense “Ghost Plant”.

You can also add other elements inspired by nature to your succulent cake. In addition to the plastic succulents, this design utilizes a rustic wooden cake stand, artificial white dahlias and candy blackberries.

The design above is a great example of another simple cake that has been visually elevated by the addition of artificial succulent cake toppers. It is modeled after echeveria “Green Burgundy”.

If you want to make a cake that looks like this, add a clay succulent cake topper and artificial eucalyptus leaves to a white cake on a green cake stand.

This succulent cake design is very simple, and uses only a faux succulent cake topper (modeled after aloe aristata “Lace Aloe”) and a metallic drip.

You can purchase a similar artificial cake topper here and learn how to make an easy metallic cake drip here.

This succulent cake design has one large faux succulent modeled after echeveria “Black Prince” and lots of little succulents modeled after echeveria “Chroma”.

If you’re doing a design like this where the succulents cascade down the cake, it’s helpful to use succulents attached to wooden toothpicks, so you can position them exactly where you want.

Buttercream cactus cakes

Some of the buttercream succulent cake ideas earlier in the post also included cacti. However, the cactus cake ideas below feature designs only using cacti, and no other succulents.

Most of the other succulent cake ideas above have the succulents placed directly on top of the cakes.

This cactus cake design has an area in the top of the cake which has been removed. It has been filled with graham cracker crumbs before the buttercream succulents were added.

Doing this makes the cacti look like they are growing out of the ground, instead of placed on top of a cake. This feature really takes this cactus cake to the next level.

The cacti on this cake are modeled after:

Mammillaria spinosissima “Red-Headed Irishman” – cactus with pink flowers
Crassula columella – “Pillar Plant” – green cactus
Gymocalycium mihanovichii f. variegata “Variegated Moon Cactus” – red and green cactus

This buttercream cactus cake design had a pink and white ombre layer of frosting to represent a sunset. It is decorated with graham cracker crumbs around the edge, cacti piped on the side, and on top of the cake.

While the cacti in this design are simple, the cake as a whole is stunning because of the sunset frosting.

The cacti on this cake are modeled after:

Carnegiea gigantea “Saguaro Cactus” – tall cactus with branches
Mammillaria spinosissima ssp. tepoxtlana – cactus with flowers
Echinobivia “Rainbow Bursts” – short barrel cactus

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Admin note: This post with succulent cake ideas first appeared on the blog in June of 2013. It has been updated with all new photos, a video, and more succulent cake designs.