How to Make Roses With Buttercream

Buttercream roses look beautiful on a cake.

A cake with beautiful pastel roses can be a stunning dessert for a special occasion. Although it takes practice, making roses with buttercream frosting is a doable skill that you can learn with just a little time and effort. Create pretty roses on a special flower nail and then transfer them to the top of your cake to add lovely accents to the cake.

Things You'll Need

• Stiff buttercream frosting (in flower colors)
• Pastry bag
• Pastry bag coupler
• Frosting tips (12 and 104)
• Flower nail
• Thin spatula

Instructions

1. Place the base of the coupler into the large opening of the pastry bag and maneuver it down to the small hole. Push the base through the hole and then position the number 12 tip over the base from the outside of the bag. Screw the ring of the coupler over the tip tightly.

2. Fill the pastry bag with about 1/2 cup of stiff buttercream frosting. Push the frosting down to the bottom of the bag with a spatula. Fold over the top portion of the bag and squeeze the frosting gently down toward the tip.

3. Hold the handle of the flower nail with your nondominant hand and create the base of the rose blossom in the center of the flat side of the flower nail. Holding the pastry bag at a 90-degree angle, squeeze out the base of the rose to make a dollop about 1 inch in diameter and 1 1/2 inches high. Stop squeezing the pastry bag and lift it away to make a cone-shaped rose base.

4. Switch the tip to the 104. Hold the flower nail in your nondominant hand and hold the pastry bag at a 45-degree angle to the flower nail. Place the tip against the rose base about halfway between the top and bottom of the base with the thinner side just above the base and the wide side of the tip touching the rose base.

5. Squeeze the pastry bag gently while spinning the flower nail counterclockwise slowly. As you squeeze and rotate, create the center portion of the rose by making a ribbon of buttercream in a circular shape. Bring the ribbon back around to the starting point, overlapping it slightly. Stop squeezing and pull the tip away.

6. Position the tip about one-quarter turn away from the point where you started the center portion and squeeze out a petal while you rotate the flower nail. Stop the petal about halfway around the rose blossom.

7. Start the next petal, overlapping it about one-third to one-half behind the last petal. Make this petal the same size as the last petal. Add more petals to create the rose as full as you wish.

8. Transfer the rose to the cake by lifting it carefully with a thin spatula.

References

• "The Cake Bible"; Rose Levy Beranbaum, Maria Guarnaschelli, Vincent Lee, Manuela Paul; 1988