Sigh, I have been having great difficulties in producing a great, smooth roses. Mine always come our like wild roses, rough edged, and not holding together. I have taken classes, watched others and yet, comes out not so perfect. Maybe its my teacher, maybe its my buttercream, tried thinning-it worked, I got smooth edges but it was too soft!! I spend hours making roses for my cake orders (ugh, I know!) I should be spending less time. I even used my teacher's recipe with same results...ok is it me?? I feel like a failure!! My first time roses turned out awesome as I learned it via by youtube, but I wanted to get more under my belt, so I took classes..ok, maybe I am a perfectionist but since then, my roses look worse!! My buttercream is somewhat stiff but tried thinning it out..cant seem to get it right without it being too soft to produce nice petals..UGH!! Please help! I feel like giving up..really..even though my teacher gave me great reviews!!

are your edges rough or smooth... sometimes you need to open the rose tip up a little on the smaller end.
use a knife, or skewer just to open a little.. I am not sure what size your using on the tip but maybe a little larger might help... and are you using buttercream or royal icing? There are so many thing
also are you using the standard flower nail method? Maybe you can have better success with the skewer flower method. It is hard to describe (at least for me).. but here goes...

You take a mini marshmallow and squish it until the skewer looks like a Qtip. this will be the inside of your flower.. it makes the flower lighter because you don't have all the heavy frosting in the center. They also dry more quickly... Go around the mallow once just like you would with the frosting center and then start with your smaller uper petals and then go from there... when done .. simply stick skewer into styrofoam to dry
or remove the flower off with a pair of sissors.

I noticed at our local craft store that wilton has now starting to make flower centers... that you just purchase for an expensive price for the same little things you just can make.

I love the different and beautiful real look roses that I make on the toothpick or skewer.. I can sit and listen to the raido talk to friends or watch tv and make 100s at a time... when needed or just to let dry and store for when needed.

Lots of practice.. if you look on the Winbeckler webstie they have a great tutorial on frosting making to keep from lumps grainy and perfect for what your needed from flowers to boarders to just frosting..
lots of great ideas...

I hope i have been at least a little helpful... ... if you get discouraged maybe you would enjoy making roses out of gumpaste or fondant... just like sugar playdough. Have fun and it will all come around.

Add shortening. When you thinned your BC, you got smooth edges but it was too softragged edges are usually caused by icing that is too dry, not necessarily too stiff, so it needs to be creamier... adding shortening should help. Also, make sure your tip is opened enough. If you still get ragged edges, try using a larger rose tiplike tip #124.

I think it may be the rose tip- I use 104, 103 for the most part. I do use butter cream with shortening it it. I whip it for 15 minutes. I have notice that once the cream warms up to my hands in the bag, it flows easier but, I did thin it out with a little milk. My flowers always fall to the sides when I use the method teacher taught me..unfortunately not wilton ways, not enough support even though I do put a base on it. I tried using the rose tip for base and the 7 tip, same effect. I do use flower nails as well. There' s was a trick I heard that some people use hershey's kisses for their flowers.. I might have to try that..But I will try opening up the tip more to your suggestion. See if that works.. I tried again this morning but the flower fell, too soft even though it needed to be thinned-ARGH!! I about had it with decorating, really I am.. I more of a baker than a decorator..I just got thrown into the mix when I was asked to do someone's cake after they saw my dd's cake I did..It's more hard work than it seems for me..maybe I don't have enough under my belt and need more practice but I look at the wilton's mags and wished my teacher taught me their method-she is a professional decorator and taught us the way she was taught by old cake ladies. Some of the flowers she taught us-I think don't look right, never seen them that way and a lot of my classmates had difficulties as well. Maybe its her..I dunno..Thanks for giving hints.. I may just throw the towel in...

I have used larger rose tips with the same effects as well-I think its me..I am trying to troubleshoot here what is the problem..maybe its really me...maybe its the way I hold it, pressure, even though its constant..oh vey!

I saw your video! Awesome! I have seen that method via youtube..it could be the butter cream recipe-could you share your recipe???? It flows quick and nice.. I think that could be my problem...

I'm one who *Loves!* roses w/ragged edges. To me that looks much more natural Don't sweat it.
Most beginners don't turn the nail fast enough &/or squeeze the bag hard enough. It takes time to get it right.
"all of a sudden" you will realize everything is coming out just fine - when you stop stressing aobut it.

Can I make one suggestion for any future posts you might add? Be more specific(sp?) in the subject line. Some people, when they read "Help" will just pass the post by. If you titled it 'need help making roses' you would get more response.

Thanks for your hints and encouragement. I squeeze too hard because of the buttercream and then that's when the rough edges come out. It seems to take forever to make a rose..my teacher had said I was pulling it the wrong way-I tried her way-I am a righty not a lefty!! I had a hard time rolling it her way. She said I started out with bad habit. Sheesh...ok, so when I start the bud, it automatically falls to the side, I try saving it but then maybe its the way I am holding it..I am going to practice more..I think..

So I've been cake decorating for a while now and I can't make buttercream roses to save my life....so I don't

I can do beautiful ribbon roses, duff roses and real gumpaste roses.
All can be made way in advance and look lovely and don't cause me near the stress I had with BC roses.

Youtube tutorials on each type:
Ribbon Roses - she uses gumpaste, I use fondant with Gumtex or Tylose added for ribbon roses.

Apparantly I was having a bad day yesterday with this cake order-everything went wrong on a simple 8" single layer cake that should have been done in no-time but it took literally all day and into the night with it..UGH!! I guess I do that with every order I get. Something goes wrong... It started with the buttercream recipe-not my tnt recipe but teacher's and I was making chocolate butter cream-WRONG!! I dumped that, went to my tnt-made into chocolate- the cakes, yes, cakes, first cake-got stuck in pan, 2nd time with using butter/flour for preparing pans-old fashioned way. Not anymore since I ran to the store to get spray-then I over sprayed the pans (fear of sticking again) and affected the cakes-yuck! So, made the last one-yep made this cake three times!! WHAT A WASTE FOR ME!! OK so already stressed out, trouble with flowers, icing and the whole bit. I had reserved my tnt butter cream untouched by chocolate. I just got done practicing-VIOLA!! My roses came out good-not great, but better! Maybe I was stressed out with everything going wrong. But still my roses have rough edge but that can be controlled by pressure-Just need more practice-thanks for listening and giving great hints..I sure will use some of them if I am in a bind-I think I'll hold off on cake orders till I get more practice in me and pick up some Wilton books! I am very hard on myself-very critical-I even gave this girl half off on price because I don't think it looks good and was so frustrated, tired etc that I am practically giving it away! At this point, I don't care...maybe its the pressure I put on myself LOL...