Don't be discouraged about making roses, it took me two class sessions to learn how to do my roses, plus I practice at home. I found out that if room temperature is too warm or too hot, roses don't seem to hold up well when making them. I use gumdrops with a coffee straw inserted at bottom and work with first petal while turning the straw counterclockwise. When I finished the rose, I put the straw with the rose inserted into a piece of form and waited to it firms a little before useing a tooth pick touching the top of the gumdrop to transport the entire rose onto the area of cake. I like to make the two tone color roses of any color. Just keep practiceing. It is not always the first try that you might succeed, but the finish tries will be the end results.

2cakes that is a very good idea! I use the flower scissors & sometimes my flowers fall off onto my cake & mess my icing up. I am going to try the gumdrop sounds like it works pretty good! Thanks for the tip!

tcturtleshell, you are quite welcome. Let me know how it works for you.

That is a great idea using gumdrops but I'm a little confused where do you place the straw? And i assume you have to cut the straw to fit ? Please explain for me. Thanks.

Hi PureShugga! Yes, that is correct, you need to cut the straw a little so that when you are finish making your rose, it can sit on top of your cake making sure that you don't see the straw from the bottom after inserting it down into the cake. I usually measure the straw against the height of the cake then I cut the straw. I cut the straw in advance so that I have them and would not have to worry about measuring the straw/(s). I just put them in a zip lock bag and have them available whenever I need them. As for where the straw goes, it goes in at the bottom round part of the gumdrop so that the point end is upright. Push the straw as far as it can go and you are ready to make your rose. I hope that this was of some help; please feel free if you have further questions. Happy baking and creation.

Now this I have to try, always willing to try new things! Thanks for the tip 2cakes!

Oops!!!!!!!!!!! So sorry, I mentioned to use straws for the gumdrops, wrong straws. Instead use coffee stirs with rounded ends on each side. I brought my coffee stirs from a dollar store and they worked well. Again, I apologize for the mistake. Any questions, please feel free to ask. The rest of instructions are ok to follow.

coffee stirs, they are plastic right? Thanks for that!

Hi tcturtleshell! Yes, the coffee stirs are plastic. You are quite welcome.

INteresting - can't wait to try this method!

hi 2cakes, where did you come up with that idea?! can you see the gumdrop when it's finished?

Hi Diane! That idea was shown to me by a professional cake decorator. If you do the roses correctly on the gumdrop, you will not see the gumdrop. When I first did it, I use the white gumdrop or vanilla color and even the yellow ones also. But now, I use whatever color I pick up. If I had a digital camera, I would show some pictures of the roses with the gumdrops. I only have pictures in my album. I am gonna purchase one of those disposable digitial cameras if I can find them in my area and if my computer will take the pictures cause I have never used a digital camera, cause I only have a 35 mm olympus camera. I have gotten pictures on cd's and download them to my computer, but that is all I have done. I hope that I answered your questions. Feel free to ask questions should you have any.

i have one more question and a comment. what do you tell people if they want to eat the rose? ...if you have a scanner you could scan your pictures and upload them here.

I use a scanner because I can't get my camera to reconize my computer. I get them developed at Walmart & then come home & scan them & upload them to here~

Hey, I think I have some gum drops left over from an Easter cupcake project! I'm going to try this! It seems like I always damage my roses somehow... now to figure out where hubby stores his coffee stir sticks! Thanks for sharing!