Hi guys, I just made this cake for my friend's baby shower. I used mmf for the cake and the roses are buttercream on top of hershey kisses.

I am ok with the roses themselves (I know they aren't perfect, but I can always improve). But what I don't like is how I have them attached. You see how you can see the icing underneath? I hate that. Should my roses be wider? Or should I have just had a mound of icing for each rose? I went all the way around the cake with the icing, then placed the roses. I found I had to angle them up so when you looked down at it it looked nice...but from the side blech!

Also, the mound of roses on top...how do you just get a mound of roses without leaves? I really wanted the cake to be jsut pink, but leaves are so good a hiding the yucky part!

So anyhoo...here are the pictures and let me know what to do please.

Also, I know the fondant is a little bumpy still (better than the first few let me tell you ! So tips on that too would be great.

Thanks a bunch in advance.

I don't know how to help you, I'm new at roses myself. BUT....your cake is beautiful!

I think maybe you mounded a LITTLE TOO much frosting ... thats what it looks like to me. I think you probably should have created a mound for each rose, rather then going around the whole cake and then adding the roses. Could you possibly add some leaves to cover-up some of the white buttercream up? I love the colors though, very pretty.

I put a large mound of roses on top of a cake once. I twirled my icing in a flat circle and then kept making smaller circles on top of the previous one, until I made sort of a cone shape with the icing. The roses applied very nicely, and there weren't any spaces in between.

Also...a dab of icing is good enough to hold a rose where you have them. Or a little mound of icing...I think that's what you called it. Just put the icing on the back of your rose if you want to, that way it will be exactly where you want it.

If you wanted to make some pink leaves........that's an idea.

Good Luck!

The pink leaves are a good idea. You could also do white leaves to hide the icing around the sides.

I have never heard of making roses on a hershey's kiss! The roses look good, but yeah - you don't need to pipe icing around the cake to keep them on... Just a little dab of icing should do it. For more of a rounded top, just make a mound of icing and cover it w/ your roses. I think very pale green (moss, or avacado) would look really pretty w/ this shade of pink. Tips for smooth fondant... Your fondant is going to pick up any lump, bump or rough spots, that you place it over... the smoother your base coat, the smoother your fondant is going to look. Using fondant smoothers help too (sometimes better than your hands), for more even distribution. Overall, very pretty cake!

I think the pink leaves would be absolutely gorgeous....maybe even brushed with a little luster dust....gosh that would be soooooo beautiful. Have you ever tried making the rose with something other than the hershey kiss ?? I know it saves a ton of time....but sometimes I make the hershey kiss base shape out of fondant and then just make tons and then when the rose is done, even after the BC sets up enough to transfer the roses to the cake the fondant is still soft enough that you can actually stick a toothpick through it and avoid the icing mound all together!!! It's also great for sticking the roses on the sides of a cake like when you make then cascade down the tiers.

I've never even heard of making roses on hershey's kisses until I came across this site.

I make my roses out of royal icing. I have 4 or 5 nails. I make the "cone" shape out of tip #12 and let it harden for a minute and then I continue with my rose.

How is this done on a hershey kiss? Do you still use a nail or what????

Me either...I'm curious to see what the process is to do this as well. I usually do the royal icing version as well...I do not do well with the buttercream roses...guess I need more practice.

Overall, I think your cake looks real nice. I think that the roses need to be put on the cake one at a time with just a dab of icing. On the top, putting them on indivually would work and then leaves can be left out. You might see a little bit of space though. The MMF, that is practice, practice, practice!
You are talented.
Good luck in all your future cakes!!!!
lilie

I know your goal was not to have too much icing under the roses, but to me it looks like they are floating on a layer of clouds. I kind of like it.

First, I think your cake is simply gorgeous as it is! But if you really want to hide the extra frosting, I agree with the idea of pink leaves with lustre dust. I think it would look really nice if you used a shade of pink that was just a little darker than the others. Good luck!

Hi guys...thanks a bunch for the great tips. I will make sure to do the icing on the back of the rose next time.

I just tried the hershey kisses this time, i saw a post by sugarshack and thought it sounded neat. I did hear compliments about the little surprise. i used white chocolate ones for this cake.

However.....I think part of my problem was the kisses. because when i make roses the regular way...I get the last layer down near the bottom of the nail. But with the kisses they sit up higher and the last row is about a 1/4 from the nail. So i think when i went ot put them on they were too far out and you could see a large pace between the cake and the rose.

Having said that...I am sure it was my inexperience that caused it to end up too far away. I guess I just need to practice that more too.

I have a question about the fondant smoother. Do you guys put something on your smoother before you use it? My always seems to stick or snag on the fondant. Does that mean something is not right with the fondant or am I pressing too hard?

Thanks again for all of your help and nice compliments. i will just keep on truckin'

Julia

I'm a newbie at fondant, but what i do before using the fondant smoother is to lighty dust my fingers/palms with icing sugar (some pple use corn starch) and "stroke" this on the fondant where i'll be using the smoother. I've tried actually putting the icing sugar on the fondant smoother but this sometimes picks up little particles and you'll mark the fondant instead of smoothing it! I also gently make circle movements when using the fondant smoother. i've found that you have to be really light when handling the smoother. hope that helps...