I just tried making buttercream roses for the first time and did NOT succeed. I don't know what I'm doing wrong. I watched the tutorial on here but it still didn't help much. I know this is such a simple thing for you accomplished decorators but I'm not accomplished at all yet and am wondering if I ever will be. I see all of the beautiful roses on here and only dream of making one! I would really love to do a cake covered in roses.
Does anyone have any helpful hints for me or should I just pack it in?

Please help!!

Don't get discouraged!! I have problems some days making roses if I haven't done it in a while.It takes a few awful ones before I get back into the swing of it.Is your icing the right consistency Medium to stiff.It can be hard to make flowers without the right consistency. Try making a fresh batch of icing...Practice,Practice,Practice and don't give up!! You will get the hang of it!!!

If it makes you feel better i CANNOT make buttercream roses for s......!!!!!
I don't even try it anymore
I am good at making fondant roses though.
Sorry couldn't be more help

AShiana

Thanks for the support kiddiecakes!
To hear that from you (your work is amazing!) makes me feel a little better.

When I was trying to do the "petals" the top of the petal as cracking a bit would that be because I don't have enough pressure or my icing is too stiff. I am using stiff icing because that is what the books say. Do you think I should add a little water?

Ashiana

That makes me feel a whole lot better LOL!!

It's cracking because the icing is too dry.Add a touch of water or milk to the icing to soften it out but not much!! I actually like my icing to crack a bit on the tips ...it makes the roses look more realistic!!

Thanks again Kiddiecakes!

I'll try that. I've given up for tonight because I was getting too frustrated but will try again tomorrow. Maybe I'll have more patience. I will practice, practice, practice. If I learn to do this I will be so amazed!

Don't give up!

Some people are natural rose makers, some have to work hard at it. I was one of those that had to work at it.

Can you take a picture of what you have done? Maybe after seeing it we can give you some more specific advice.

For your base, use a dime and trace around it on your flower nail. Use that circle as your guide for how wide you want to make your base. You want it to be in a cone shape, about a inch tall. You want to avoid tall and skinny.

You can also put arrows on your flower nail to help you remember to turn it correctly. If you are right handed you are going to turn your flower nail counter clockwise.

For the center petal, you will want your 104 halfway above the base. So when you pipe half of it will be above the base. Alot of my students have problems here, and they will do the tip even with the base, and you just can't close up the circle if you do that.

For your petals you want to aim for a half inch long on them. Turning your nail out with each row is going to help open up your flower and give you the bloomed look. If you keep your tip straight up and down your rose will look like it hasn't bloomed.

Picture a clock infront of your tip. For the center petal you want your 104 tip (large end down) turned towards 11 o'clock, or slightly to the left. For the first row of petals you will have it at 12:00 or straight up and down. For the second row of petals you will have it at 1:00, or slightly to the right. Then for the last row you will turn it to 2:00.

Also keep your arm glued to your side. The back of your bag should be towards your shoulder, and not off to the side. Rememeber you are going to use the flower nail to move the rose, so your bag and tip really shouldn't move from their place. You won't use your hand/bag to form the petals.

WOW TexasSugar!!

Okay I now know one thing I was doing wrong! My base was way too small and tall and narrow! No wonder it kept leaning...I thought the bases I was doing were too big but I guess not! Thank you so much for the detailed instructions, I will follow them when I practise.
I don't have my digital camera (my husband took it with him to his work) otherwise I would post a picture so you all could get a good laugh! Trust me when I tell you that you would laugh, you would all laugh so hard you'd fall out of your chairs! That is how bad the roses were....if you want to call them a rose they were more of a pile of icing....

Thanks again TexasSugar!

I will also keep that in mind! I know I was also turning my icing bag instead of my nail. I will do another rose slowly and if my icing still cracks I will add more crisco. I wish I could take your class! You sound like a wonderful instructor!

I apologize for posting this in the wrong area, I noticed it was moved from general to How do I. SORRY!!

or if you do like the consistency of your icing the way it is..you can add a little piping gel. The roses won't dry, but they will pipe out like a dream!

I'd add some piping gel to your icing for the roses. I had that problem something terrible when I was learning it.

Also the thin end to your tip might not be open enough. Take a butter knife and gently open it slightly (slightly being perhaps the thickness of your butter knife). My instructor told us all to do this and that helped a lot as well. She said that sometimes they just aren't open enough from the factory.

One other tip would be to use a hershey kiss as your rose center. This will give you an idea of how to get it to work without worrying about it falling over. I haven't tried this myself but remember seeing it recommended several times.

Have you tried the method of making a rose on a stick? Cheryl (ntertanyeme) did an article on this and it's fantastic. I think it is much easier doing it this way...give it a try and see what you think!

I have done roses both ways and I like both techniques. I have found that doing roses on a stick, mine tend to look more like a wild rose and the Wilton method look more like an open blossom rose.

One thing that took me a while to figure out is that when they talk about "time", i.e. 12:00, 3:00, etc. This means to move the pointy part of your tip to that position. It helps if you just rotate your bag until your tip is at the proper "time".

If you keep your tip pointing straight up all the time your rose will look more like a cabbage.

Good luck.

HAHAHA prettycakes!

They do look like cabbages. I was just telling my MIL that roses are over rated and maybe people would rather have cabbages on their cakes instead LOL! Of course I said this out of frustration.
Thank you all for your help! I will try again tonight and see if it turns out. You will all know if it does!

THANKS AGAIN!!

..we'll be waiting on a progress report!! Good luck!

I have a very hard time with the roses too !!!
I described mine as carnations after a storm, nothing rosey about them. But after practice I am getting better but for me that hershey kiss trick is great and stable. Even if you don't have a hershey kiss, the visual of one is easier to match my base to, to know when it is the right size. Still have troubles getting my icing the right consistency, too soft, too stiff, too dry, too moist, too much trouble. I have come to the conclusion I am not meant to be a flowery gal, more into 3-D and learning to sculpt. Neverless I am still in the course and continueing to persevere as I am determined the light will eventually fall on me and all will become clear.

So don't give up ..... we can't let a rose beat us !!!

Don't give up!!!!

I still have not perfected the Wilton Rose ...mine look like cabbages also...can't wait until I need some cabbages and I'll be set.

I sympathize...I can't do BC Roses for anything...now give me Royal Icing and I can go to town on some roses! Weird!

I struggled and struggled with roses when I first started decorating and I found this video on the wilton website. It is actually of someone making a rose with voice instruction and I watched it over and over again (I'm a visual learner) until it just clicked! http://www.wilton.com/decorating/basic/roses.cfm Hope this helps you as much as it helped me

how did you find the video? ... I've never seen that on the wilton website ..even now I was trying to find others and ..no luck!

never mind .. I typed video on the search and voila!! there it was!!

I like using the hershey's kiss for the base as well...you can do it on the nail or on a stick. The kids love it cuz they don't know what kind of kiss I've used inside!

Also, if you use the icing to make the base, I've found that if you let it sit for a bit and crust up a bit, it seems a little easier to do as well, especially with royal icing.

Keep practicing...in my class some got it the first time others (like me)struggled until it finally clicked.

I have had so much trouble making icing roses that I've quit making them entirely!

Now that I've watched the video I think I know what I'm doing wrong. When I pipe my petals, I'm not doing the up and down motion.

Now I can't wait to try again!

Gibson,

I just made my first roses the other day (well I had made 3 without any instructions or tutorial before but they don't count, hehe),So I am not an experianced decorator by any means, but the things I learned that I was doing wrong were...

-my bases were too narrow and skinny
-I was moving my hand that had the pastry bag instead of keeping it still and just moving the nail, I was told to tuck my elbow in so I would be contious of not moving that arm.

As soon as I did those 2 things I made roses that looked pretty good (they are in my gallery if you want to look) although they do need work, and my icing cracked on the top of the petal like you said yours were doing.


Good Luck!

Barbara

Thank you everyone! You've given me some hope! I will keep trying. I watched the video but it didn't click...although I only watched a couple of times. Maybe I will play it while I'm sleeping....it might sink in LOL!!

Barbara:

It sounds like all the things you did wrong is what I'm doing! Good to know! Now I know where to start!

Tanyap:

I will try with the hershey's kisses what a neat idea! I think somebody else mentioned it as well, but what a wonderful idea!

Thank you all again for all of the encouragment and tips! CC is the best~

Also remember, there are many many many different varieties of roses out there. I learned from a left hander so when I turn my nail I turn it towards me and my hand away from me. (hope I don't confuse you) I have tried it the "right handed" way and i get all confused-so i stick to what is easy for me.

The way I learned roses looks more like a wilton rose, however when I worked in a bakery 3 other decorators made different type roses. I had each of them teach me their way of decorating roses-so depending on the look I am going for on the cake: elegant, whimsy, fun, etc... depends on what type of rose I do. When i do a rose on the stick it looks more like a wild rose, I also learned how to make them pretty tall (I call them acorn roses) It just depends on what your style of decorating is. In the bakery all of us decorators could look at a cake with roses and tell who did it just by a rose. Everyones is different. So just because it doesn't look like a wilton rose, doesn't mean it's not a good one!

Don't give up and try a lot of different methods until you find one that "clicks" for you and you are comfortable with doing and the end results. Can't wait to see your progress.

Good luck!

Leily