BUTTERCREAM WINTER FLORAL WREATH

Steps:

• For the American buttercream: Combine the butter and shortening in a standing mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. Allow the mixture to mix on medium speed until smooth. Scrape down the sides of the bowl and add in the sifted powdered sugar and salt. Allow the mixture to mix on slow speed to avoid the sugar from spilling out of the bowl. Increase the speed to medium and let the mixture aerate and become smooth. Scrape the sides of the bowl and turn the mixer on low. Stream in the liquids while the mixer is on low speed, then increase the speed to medium and paddle until the mixture is light, fluffy and smooth.
• Divide the buttercream into 4 separate bowls. Use green, brown and black gel colors to make a dark evergreen color; put into a pastry bag with a large grass tip. Use brown gel color and a drop of black to make the color for the pinecones; put into a pastry bag with a large rose tip. Use red gel color and a drop of brown to make the color for the berries and border; put into a pastry bag with a coupler and a #8 plain piping tip. Leave some buttercream white and put into a pastry bag with a #4 plain tip.
• Start with your 6-inch cake already iced in a layer of white buttercream. Using the pastry bag with the evergreen buttercream and the grass tip, start around the outer edge of the top of the cake and pipe individual branches. Continue piping around the edge to build up the wreath, leaving a 3 1/2-inch circle open in the center.
• For the pinecones: Using the rose nail, hold the brown buttercream bag in your hand with the skinny edge of the rose tip facing up. Create a conical center for the pinecone to rest on. Starting from the top of the cone, pipe individual half-moon shaped "petals" to create the pinecone shape. Once the pinecone is complete, use a scissor to lift it off the rose nail and place onto the wreath.
• Use the white buttercream to add dots of "snow" to help brighten up the wreath.
• Squeeze the leftover white buttercream back into a bowl. Add a small amount of the leftover evergreen and more green gel color to the white buttercream to make green for leaves and put into a pastry bag with a coupler and a leaf tip. Add leaves around the pinecones and sporadically throughout the wreath.
• Using the red buttercream with the plain tip, pipe holly berries onto the wreath in sets of three. Pipe a bottom border of holly berries using the red buttercream as well. Decorate the wreath with crystal sugar and gold dragee sprinkles.