Hi there,

I have been decorating cakes for about a month, and have tried doing roses out of buttercream icing and royal icing. I'm pretty happy with how they turn out, except the top edges of the petals are sort of ruffly; the icing has breaks in it. I use a 104 tip, and my icing is stiff enough to hold up well, but the tops of my rose petals are always like that, like the icing didn't come out of the narrow part of the icing tip smoothly.

Has anyone else had this problem, and is there anything I can do to make the tops of the petals smooth, without breaks?

Any help would be much appreciated!

Mine look like that, but I like the rigid look, especially on my roses. You could try thinning the icing so it isn't so stiff but still holds it's shape  I also wipe my tip in between petals. 

I think I have already tried thinning the icing slightly, but I will try wiping the tip after each petal and see if it helps. Thanks!

Probably the type of buttercream your using  I use smbc and this does not happen unless the tempature of the buttercream is to cold

Alright, maybe I will try smbc and see how it works.

This is my buttercream recipe:

4 sticks softened butter

2 lbs. powdered sugar

2 tsp vanilla

2 1/2 Tbsp water

Does that kind of recipe, with all the butter and powdered sugar, just not work very well in general for roses?

Thanks!

I just dont use a cruising buttercream  because the texture. I think it would make a difference for the flowers 

Okay.

Actually karmen.wong you DO want to use a crusting b'cream for making flowers, especially roses:)  And if you really look at natural, real roses you will see that they are not perfect.  I LOVE when piped roses have those cracks on the top edges.  They look much more natural to me.  What makes a b'cream crust is less fat than sugar.  So if you don't want the icing to crust, add more butter &/or shortening.  Don't thin it w/a liquid, but make it creamier.

double check that your rose tube is perfectly clean in the narrow tip -- i stick a hat pin in there and scrape around -- it's surprising what comes out -- just saying :) and it can be a lump from your current batch of icing -- but lumps happen --

if you cup your pointer finger around the jagged tip of your rose petal to ever so slightly bend the edge out a tad -- it will make a beautiful rose

Thanks, I appreciate all the advice, guys!