I don't know what I was doing wrong, but, I would appreciate some advice. Until today, I haven't made a buttercream rose in quite some time. (I usually make my roses out of fondant.) I had nothing but trouble. I use a dab of frosting to hold a piece of wax paper on my nail. Then, I pipe the base onto the wax paper. The only problem was, I couldn't keep the base of the rose on the wax paper. I would keep falling off. When I finally got the base to stick, I could keep the petals of the rose to stay on. They would keep falling off.

I am so frustrated and don't ever remember having so much trouble with buttercream before. Has anyone else ever had this problem? Can you tell me what I'm doing wrong?

With the petals I'm guessing it's either the consistency of your icing (too thin will slide down and too thick just plain don't stick in the 1st place) or the positioning and angle of your tip. Just keep trying! Also, if you are just practicing and you're going to keep scraping the roses off or use a flower lifter to move them somewhere else, then double stick tape holds the paper securely, but if you want to keep the individual roses on their paper when you move them, then you can use floral clay ( or even a little ball of sticky fondant or gum paste) Good luck, I'm just starting to practice my roses too and I'm not enjoying it like I thought I would.

I can't make buttercream roses....I try & try and just can't get them right.

wilton.com , did have a video on making the rose... don,t know if they still do... youtube.com, also has different people making the rose... it will help you alot to see this... i teach wilton.... so i do know how.. your icing has to be between medium and stiff consistency... at least for me it does... too stiff and it doesn,t work either.. just keep practicing.... also , until you learn.... put a little peice of floral sticky stuff on nail .. then wax paper.. make your base at least the size of a hersey candy kiss.... that will hold all the petals.. you will get it

I feel your pain! I can't get bc roses either! I try and try. I think it may also be that I'm left handed and it is a bit awkward. I'm going to take a flowers class in October and maybe I'll get it then. For now, I stick with fondant roses too!

Thank you, everyone for your advise and sympathy. I have come to the conclusion, after reading all of the posts, that my icing was just too stiff. As I mentioned, it as been a few years since I've actually made buttercream roses. I have to tell you, I have never had them fall right off of the wax paper before! I'm going to try again with a slightly thinned version of my buttercream.

Thanks again for everyone's expertise!

My saving grace is piping the petals on a Hershey Kiss base. All the roses in my pics were done this way. People seem to like the surprise of finding it inside their rose too!

I never liked doing roses until I learned how to do them right on the cake. My frosting was either too stiff or too thin, and I'm just not coordinated enough with the flower nail. Now none of that matters! I have much better results doing it this way

from the sound of it you just need a stiffer consistency. Try it and you'll be golden!!!

My vote is for too dry, not really too stiff. Add in more crisco to make it creamier. You can also add in piping gel to do the same thing. It will make it softer with out actually changing the consistancy any.

About a tablespoon of crisco to a cup or a teaspoon of pipping gel to a cup.

Serious cakes: I too was having trouble coordinating making my roses on the flower nail, but I found a way to battle that. I bought a styrofoam block to stick my nail in. That helped me out a lot and my roses improved after that.

Chrissy410: I too am left handed. I just kept adapting the technique that the instructor showed us until it felt comfortable for me. I found that going the opposite way from what the instructor showed worked better for me.

I was also having trouble squeezing the bag because of weakness in my left hand (health issues). The instructor said to only fill the bag 1/3 of the way. I may have to fill my bag more often than the average person, but it sure is alot less stressful on my hand, arm, and shoulders.