The Contemporary Buttercream Bible (22 page)

The trick with piping roses is to know when to stop

piping the ‘arches’ and start piping the outer petals.

Don’t make the mistake of making your roses too

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huge – try to have them just the right size so that

they provide just the right amount of buttercream

in each mouthful. If the edges of your petals are

breaking, chill the piping bag full of buttercream in the fridge for a few minutes and then massage the

bag as if you were mixing the frosting. A two-tone

effect will make your rose petals more realistic. For instructions on how to fill a piping bag with two

colours see Up and Down Two-tone Ruffles in

Piping Textures and Patterns.

Rose

1 If you are piping the rose directly on a cupcake,

you can pipe the bud straight on without piping a

base. Use a petal nozzle (Wilton 104), which should

be positioned vertically with the wide end touching

the surface and slightly tilted inward. As you

squeeze the piping bag with continuous, even

pressure, turn the cupcake clockwise and make

both ends of your buttercream bud meet (A). Make

sure that the bud will only have a small opening.

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A

2 While the nozzle is still slightly tilted inwards,

pipe an arch shaped petal (as you also turn your

cupcake) that goes around the bud, making sure

that as you pipe you are also slightly pushing the

petal against the bud so there are no gaps and it will not collapse. Each petal should start slightly past

the middle of one petal and overlap the previous

one. Pipe about two to four short petals (B).

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B

3 After creating a bud with few petals around it,

turn the nozzle straight then pipe a couple of

slightly longer and higher ‘arches’ (C and D). Pipe

about two to four petals. When piping last few

petals, tilt the nozzle slightly outwards and make

the arches longer instead of higher. Pipe about four

to five petals (E).

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C

D

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E

Tip

The secret for piping realistic roses is in the

angle of your nozzle and the height of the

‘arches’. Make sure also that you pipe the

petals close to each other so they do not have

any gaps and they will not easily break when

you position them on your cake.

4 Pipe leaves using a leaf nozzle (see Sunflower and

Leaves) (F).

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F

Tip

We do not advise you to try to put roses on the

side of a cake where there is no support

because they are heavy and will eventually fall

off.

Making roses in advance

If you want several roses on your cake, you

will need either to make them in advance and

freeze them, or pipe them on a flat surface or a

flower nail (A), then ‘lift’ them with scissors in

order to position them on your cake (B). For

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the

freezing

method,

pipe

a

blob

of

buttercream on a flower nail, put a small piece

of greaseproof (wax) paper on top then pipe

the rose. Transfer to a tray and freeze.

A

B

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Rose Bud

1 Using a small petal nozzle (Wilton 104), position

the nozzle flat on the surface with the opening

facing to the left. Gently squeeze the piping bag

until it creates half a petal then pull the nozzle

slightly out (to the right) and up then fold towards

the centre.

2 Pipe an overlapping petal by holding the bag with

the nozzle touching the upper edge of the first petal.

Gently squeeze the piping bag and pull the nozzle

slightly out (to the left) and up, then fold until it overlaps the first petal.

3 Depending on how big you want your bud to be,

you can repeat steps 1 and 2 to add few more petals.

When done, use scissors to cut the tip off a piping

bag filled with green-tinted buttercream to pipe the

calyx.

4 Pipe some leaves using a leaf nozzle (see

Sunflower and Leaves).

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Tip

Unlike roses, rose buds are always piped

directly on the cake, and look particularly

beautiful cascading down or growing up the

sides of a cake. You can also use the two-tone

effect described in the Up and Down Two-tone

Ruffles section of Piping Textures and

Patterns.

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To create this cake…

• 10 × 20cm (4 × 8in) round cake

• 950g–1.45kg (2lb 2oz–3lb 31⁄4oz) buttercream

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• Paste colours: light blue green, (Sugarflair

Eucalyptus), dark pink (Sugarflair Dusky Pink),

dark green (Sugarflair Spruce Green), light green

(Sugarflair Gooseberry)

• Piping bags

• Small petal nozzle (Wilton 104)

• Leaf nozzle (Wilton 352)

• Cake scraper or ruler

• Palette knife

• Scissors