My Mother’s Day cake needed a pretty garnish, and I had a basket of strawberries just waiting to fill the bill. However, I wanted something different than the usual method of slicing and fanning the berries out. So I Googled around and was struck by one photo in particular; it was a strawberry cut to look like a rose. What a perfect garnish for Mother’s Day!

After a couple of clumsy attempts, I executed a decent rose to bloom on top of my pineapple cake. Here’s the method I used.

#1 Pick a nice fat strawberry. Wash and dry it. (You might try practicing first on a few small ones.

#2 Turn it upside down and grab a small but sharp knife in your other hand. Make four half-moon cuts around the bottom, but don’t slice all the way through.

#3 Fan the four cuts out ever so slightly.

 #4 Continue working your way up the strawberry, making half-moon cuts around the sides. I staggered mine to give a more authentic look.

 #5 Gently fan the “petals” out. You might want to borrow some leaves from the other strawberries to fill out your garnish. After it’s fanned out, the leaves on the bottom get obscured.

#6 Carefully set the garnish in place, and you’re done. I accented my cake with some red sprinkles.

If you have some more strawberry garnish ideas, or ANY easy ways to make a cake look extra nice, I’d love to hear them!